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Introduction:
Welcome to Merriam Pianos’ refreshed 2020 review of all the critical points of information to know about as you are searching and shopping for a baby grand piano.
A baby grand piano can be one of the most expensive purchases a family makes, and it’s often difficult to understand how you should be making the decision, or what pieces of information to focus in on so that you feel informed and comfortable with your budget and ultimately your final selection.
We hope you enjoy the video, and if it is the first time to the channel, we’d love for you to subscribe and stay notified!
Price Ranges:
Grand pianos range widely in price, starting from $10,000 and heading up to a half-a-million in rare cases. There are many reasons for the massive disparity - building materials, production time, the sophistication of design, and to an extent, exclusivity and limited production.
One the one extreme, the majority of Chinese baby grand pianos are manufactured to achieve a price point, and although the cost-cutting measures have become less extreme in 2020 than they were in the early 2000’s, there are still design and material selections that are made entirely out of cost consideration to sneak in under the $10,000 USD mark. Although, this is becoming difficult to find models that still meet this price point.
Between $10,000 - 20,000, the baby grand pianos available include a wide variety of stencil or entry-level brands from larger manufacturers, built in China and Indonesia (*). This would include pianos from:
● Pearl River
● Parsons
● Hailun
● Perzina
● Samick*
● Young Chang
● Kawai*
● Yamaha*
Some of the best Indonesian pianos are from the Kawai Karawan factory, which builds the K-200, GL10, and Boston models for the Steinway & Sons brand.
From $20,000 - 30,000, this moves to the Japanese product from Kawai and Yamaha, the two largest piano manufacturers in the world by dollar value. This would include models like the GC1 or C1X from Yamaha, or the GL20 / GL30 or GX1 from Kawai.
From $30,000 - 50,000, European builders from the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, or San Marino find their niche.
And from $50,000 and up, with the exception of the NY Steinway Model S (and maybe M...which is stretching the baby grand label a bit at 5’7”), all others are from Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Manufacturers:
Although the number of piano manufacturers in the world is shrinking through consolidation and attrition, the number of brands continues to hold steady. This leads to a heavy burden on the customer to further understand the source of the products and how to access up-to-date resources which ‘decode’ the industry.
The smallest companies continue to be the boutique builders of western Europe, where the largest are the Asian giants building 100,000’s of pianos per year.
Longevity:
Baby grand pianos have varying lifespans, and their cabinetry is the biggest indicator of how long they will last, or whether they can be rebuilt. On the low end, an inexpensive entry-level grand piano may have a realistic life span of 30-40 years before major components would be in need of refurbishment under normal use - such as action parts, hammers, bass strings, or possibly tuning pins.
On the extreme end, a hand-made concert grand piano is built (as Steinway says….built to be rebuilt) with the intention of a 100+ year lifespan in-home, studio, or light institutional use. (Factors such as sheer physical damage and extreme climatic changes affect even the best pianos in high-use institutional settings.)
Sizes and what is appropriate/necessary:
Most homes select pianos between 5-7’ in length, with the majority of those between 5’1” and 6’1”. This size range is sufficient to fill residential rooms of any size, with the smaller 5’ sizes appropriate for rooms of 15’ x 15’ (approx) and 6’ models could easily fill rooms more than twice that size.
New vs Used:
There will always be used options to select from, and the options are so varied that it’s difficult to draw broad conclusions. Important considerations are warranty coverage, moving costs, reliable information as to its history and maintenance records, and accuracy of information overall. Generally, a used grand piano in good mechanical condition, if in black polish and without a premium brand, will sell for $3000 - 5000 privately. A used Yamaha or Kawai privately, in good condition, will sell for between $7000 - 15,000 depending on the model.
