i want a new piano

[hoarsewhisperer]

i have a very nice little forster upright which has a lovely warm sound which suits the kind of music i like to play - the romantics.

anyway - i have always wanted a grand and due to massive move around of furniture and possible future reclaimning of dining room back from children who have it as a playroom at the moment i should have space. DH has promised i can have my much longed for grand as a 40th birthday pressie.....

question - should i get a baby, or will it not sounds as good as the full size. I dont want anything terribly modern, but what is the best in terms of makers apart from the extremely obvious like the bechsteins etc. budget is i think reasonably generous, but what do you think i should expect to pay.

thanks

Lucky you. I'm very .

Can't offer much advice regarding makes and models, but I'm hoping to be in a very similar position to you at some point in the future, and I'd be looking at trying out as many pianos as possible, in various sizes (you're not talking about full concert grand size are you? - that would be really make me jealous). Do you have a showroom nearby that you could visit? I'd hope to get something decent around the £12-15K mark, but that's a finger-in-the-air estimate based on pianos I've tried in the past. Let us know how you get on.

thanks alice. I am not going to be buying for a while - sometime in the next year, but i want to start looking. We have a good piano shop nearby. I really want an older piano if possible, c. 1900 or thereabouts. I have room for a 6 foot piano, max, not sure how big a concert grand actually is though.

your price est is about what i was thinking. I keep telling myself that it is also an investment as it should hold its value. I did see a beautiful Steinway from 1900, but it was 22k which is way out of my price range. The bosendorfer was also 23k.....

Oh well - will just have to keep looking...and practising!

Personally I wouldn't get a baby grand.

We got a lovely reconditioned 1903 rosewood Ibach 6 foot grand a few years ago, from a piano shop in Berkhamsted. It has a lovely tone, a bit Bosendorfer-like, an old rich 19th century sound. It cost about 6k.

My only beef with it is that it takes up most of the living room.

Ibach