If any MNers in the London area have a piano they no longer need, or know anyone who has...

[frogs]

...we would be very grateful. The moment has finally come for me to dust off my piano skills so I can accompany the dcs in their instrument learning endeavours.

I'm happy to pay a sensible amount, but everything I've seen for sale in shops is rather beyond our post-christmas budget. There is ebay, but I'm not experienced enough to sort the good stuff from the trash, so thought I'd turn here for recs first.

My uncle did have one in Hampstead Garden Suburb but I think the house has been cleared now. I can check though.

That would be v. kind, thanks.

Sorry Frogs, as I thought the house has been cleared now.

I got a brilliant one through the local paper. Went round and tried about 5 and the one I've got only cost me about £60 I think (with a stool) and it's perfect for plonking out a few christmas carols etc.

Thanks anyway, dragon. Dances, how did you know the difference between the duff ones and the reasonable? Local paper is a good idea -- at least you can try them out without travelling for miles.

I'm no expert! If you have a friendly musical person take them but I just went and played a quick piece on them (a few notes not Rhapsody in Blue!) and if I didn't like the sound (a lot of honky tonky old pianos) then I just said it wasn't quite what I was looking for and scarpered!

The other thing about buying them from an individual is getting the piano home (they don't like being hauled about much) I paid a removal company to transport it to my house (can't remember how much it cost but not more than £100) and then a piano tuner came and tuned it for me.

frogs -have you come across Freecycle ? (a way of giving away things to avoid them going to landfill) -its just that I've seen a few pianos being offered on our local one.

Go to www.freecycle.org (I think it is) and register for groups near you. You can also post "wanted"s on there too once you've offered stuff.

Give it a go -you never know!

Oh! Good idea Betty. I can check my ones if you like, I'm in Kent but that may be too far for you to collect?

Thanks guys! I am registered with Freecycle, but thought a piano would be asking too much! But I guess there must be people out there who just want shot, so worth a go. Will explore the small ads in a couple of weeks once people have recovered from Christmas.