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Marin Piano offer only technician-certified used pianos with a warranty for your protection. You can be assured of receiving an excellent value for the money invested in the piano, and you can also take advantage of our exclusive 100% trade-up policy!
2. Brand Names
Worldwide, you may find over 5,000 brand names of used pianos. Some names
you may recognize, but many brand names will be unfamiliar to you. Some brands
were made by manufacturers who have gone out of business. In addition, some
of the names you will find on the front of pianos do not actually reflect
the true name of the manufacturer. These are referred to as "label"
pianos.
The "brand name" on the front of a "label" piano might actually be the name of the retail store that originally sold the piano new, or it might be an invented name used by a company that only makes "label" pianos and never uses the actual name of their real manufacturing company. It also might be the name of a piano company that once existed, but has gone out of business and has sold their real name to a "label" piano company.
The manufacturer of the piano is important. Some companies have established reputations for quality. Those pianos stand out over time and are often excellent investments. Since the finest materials and workmanship are used in manufacturing better pianos, those pianos have a longer "useable" life as musical instruments, provided they have been well maintained.
1. Quality
A used acoustic (or "wooden") piano can be
an excellent investment. As with any other preowned merchandise, however,
it is crucial to determine the quality and condition of the piano you are
considering to know if that piano is a good investment.
A piano has over 8,000 parts, some of which are quite small and hidden from
view behind the plate or other immovable area of the piano. It is not possible
for the layperson to judge the condition of a preowned piano. It takes years
of technical training to adequately judge the condition of a plate, strings,
soundboard, ribs, bridges, pinblock, action, hammers and trapwork. If a piano
"sounds pretty good" remember that it may just have been tuned within
a few days prior to your visit, and that same piano may not hold tune for
more than a few weeks. Constant retuning will be very expensive.
If a piano will not hold a tuning, it is no longer
a musical instrument.
Anyone from a beginning student to a professional pianist attempting to play
such a piano will sound horrible. While it is true that almost any piano can
be rebuilt so that it will then hold a tune, this process (if done correctly)
is very expensive, very often more expensive than purchasing a new piano.
It should be noted that most tall old "upright" pre-1930's pianos cannot be brought back into playable condition in any cost effective way. Also, pianos produced prior to 1920 were built to an entirely different tuning scale (A435) than modern pianos (A440) and as such were never designed to hold what we consider tune.
It is also crucial to remember that just as you cannot determine if a used car is a good buy based on the paint job alone, you cannot determine the worth of a piano based only on the condition of the furniture or "cabinet" holding the piano. A piano is a musical instrument and has a monetary value based on it's quality as a musical instrument, not primarily on it's attractiveness as a piece of furniture.
Every piano player, whether beginning student or professional performing artist, needs a piano with the following attributes:
Tone
A piano should have rich bass tones, a warm middle
register and clear treble tones. Pianos that are overly bright or "tinny"
or which have dull, muddy tones should be avoided. The "scale design"
or "blueprint" of the piano as well as the condition of the individual
piano parts determines the tone of the piano.
Touch
All piano players, especially beginning students, must
have a piano with a good touch to be successful. The piano keys must respond
instantly and sensitively to the player's touch on the piano keys. The entire
action mechanism must provide the player with note-to-note consistency, quick
repetition and dynamic control.
Low Maintenance
A high quality piano that has received proper maintenance
and has been used and stored properly can be an excellent investment. A piano
that was manufactured with low quality materials and poor workmanship is always
a poor investment, whether the piano is new or used.
