Someone at work is giving away an upright from about 1920 that has been in a garage for two years. Alternatively I have 900 saved for a weighted digital. Second floor flat, neighbours on both sides and below, and I will almost certainly move again within eighteen months. Coming back to playing after a very long gap and I would rather not make an expensive mistake in either direction.
The strongest argument for acoustic is that it teaches touch and tone in a way digitals still approximate. But a bad acoustic teaches you bad touch, because you learn to compensate for uneven action and dead notes. A good digital genuinely beats a neglected upright for a returning player. When you have a house and a room, buy a decent second hand acoustic that somebody has been maintaining.
And when that day comes, buy from someone who has had it tuned annually and has the technician's name. That single fact predicts the condition better than the badge on the fallboard.
Headphones on their own settle it for a flat. Being able to practise at 11pm without a thought is worth more to your actual playing hours than any difference in action, because the practice you do at a bad hour is practice you would otherwise not do.
Two specifics when you shop: check it is a graded hammer action rather than semi weighted, and check the supplied pedal is a continuous or half damper capable one rather than a plastic on off switch. The cheap switch pedal is the single most annoying thing about budget digitals and it is easy to overlook in a shop.
Also try the same model with headphones in the shop, not just through its speakers. Some of them sound completely different and headphones is how you will mostly hear it.
Also think about weight and stairs for your own move in eighteen months. A digital and a stand goes in a car. Anything else means hiring people twice.
@chapter_cass · 2mo ago · 3 replies
Digital, given the flat, the neighbours and the move. The free piano is the more expensive option and it is not close.
What the free upright actually costs: moving it, which is 250 to 400 for professionals and more up a staircase to a second floor, then tuning, and a piano that has been in a garage for two years will need at least two tunings in the first year because it has to be pulled back up to pitch gradually. Then in eighteen months you pay to move it again or you give it away.
And the real risk: two years in a garage means uncontrolled humidity, which is what cracks pinblocks and soundboards. A piano with a failing pinblock will not hold tune at all, and there is no economical repair. That is why these instruments are free.
If you love the idea, pay a technician 80 to 120 to look at it before you accept it, and ask them specifically about tuning pin tightness and soundboard cracks. If they hesitate at all, walk away.
For 900 you can get a genuinely good weighted digital with a decent hammer action. Spend a little of it on a proper stand and an adjustable bench rather than an X frame, because the bench affects your technique far more than the sound engine does.
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@kettlebell_ned · 2mo ago
Rang a technician. He asked two questions about the garage and told me not to bother, for free. That was clarifying.
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@sprinter_sage · 2mo ago
The adjustable bench point deserves more attention. People spend 900 on the instrument and then sit on a dining chair, which undoes a good part of the benefit.
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