Piano

Been playing the guitar for awhile but lately got the itch to buy a piano so I can teach my son when he gets older.

I don't know anything about pianos though. Anyone here know much about them like what brands to go with and what to stay away from.

They cost a goddamn lot!

Keyboards and pianos have 2 totally different feels and almost require 2 different skill sets.

Thats about all I know.

Yamaha makes a great piano. I'm assuming that you want to buy an upright and not a grand. You'll get a better sound from a newer "namebrand" piano. You can buy an older one but usually unless its a great piano it will have a hard time staying in tune. It's worth the money to buy a good one and take care of it. The resale value is pretty good on quality instruments.

I don't know much, but I would say that if you think he is going to be serious about it one of the combo pianos that digitally record/play while still using keys and strings would be worth having. My old next door neighbors had one of them and it was a beautiful instrument.

FWIW, I'm always shocked at how many people are giving away pianos, either in the classifieds or on Craigslist (with the caveat that you take it away, of course). It'd require a professional tuning, of course.

the_bird said:

FWIW, I'm always shocked at how many people are giving away pianos, either in the classifieds or on Craigslist (with the caveat that you take it away, of course). It'd require a professional tuning, of course.

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+1! So many people get pianos and never use them. definately go for free! Perhaps call the local professional tuner and ask him what he thinks you should keep your eyes open for.

If you are willing to spend the money on new, it will sound much better (usually). Although I do see many for sale for practically nothing, that probably need a couple hundred dollars worth of tuning and adjusting.

Some newer keyboards have a great feel to them (weighted keys), and are more portable and take up less room. But, they are not too cheap either. But, you can usually also get more sound out of them, and line out directly into PA or recording equipment, and adjust volume much better too. They got a lot going for them. They fell as good as or better than most of the free pianos out there.

^^^+1

I have been dinking around with the piano myself (guitar player for 14 years) and have played some weighted digital pianos that have a great, natural feel to them and they are pretty versatile. They will cost you, though.

The free piano with a couple hundred put into it for tuning, fixing dampers... is also a good idea. If nothing else you could sell it for more than the repair cost. A good option is there is doubt that you will keep on.

My piano is a 1974 Fender Rhodes that my brother found at the garbage site in his apartments. He drug the case home and called me up when he saw the Fender logo. It was very well taken care of, but is has a different feel and sound. Interesting instrument, though, when you open it up you have the hammer with damper connected to the key, which hits a tuning fork. each tuning fork has a set screw to adjust the tuning and a pickup to amplify the piano. 77 keys on this thing and each key has a pickup. You can plug it into an amp like a guitar.

While pianos and keyboards feel different, either will work for learning how to play. You might consider getting a keyboard to see if your son even likes playing, you can always upgrade to a piano later. I'd have to second the Yamaha recommendation, they make great beginner pianos that are pretty reasonable.

Duder! You have a Rhodes?!!!! I'm so jealous. Yeah, those things are worth quite a bit of money. Especially if its working. I WOULD kill for one of those things! Nice score!

If you just want to try it out, but not invest too much while allowing the possibility for expansion, try this:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Studiologic-SL-990XP-88-Key-MIDI-Controller-708348-i1155117.gc
I have one of these and love it. (Actually, I have the older SL-1100, which they don't make anymore, but it's pretty much the same thing). It has the full 88 keys and feels very similar to playing a piano.

You can hook this right up to your computer, assuming you have decent computer speakers, with a midi-computer cable. The cable I have is midi-joystick port, but I'm sure they make a midi-usb cable now.

Then download Vienna SoundFont Studio for free:http://www.soundblaster.com/soundfont/downloads.asp. It has probably hundreds of good sounding keyboard sounds including sets of pianos and strings. The only accessories you'll need are a sustain pedal like one of these: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Search/Default.aspx?src=sustain+pedal&Search.x=18&Search.y=14 and a keyboard stand. You could probably get everything for ~$400.00