-- Let's get chased around the piano store...
Ever been to a music store and were high pressured to make a decision on the spot to buy a piano? Piano shoppers are usually looking for the perfect piano of their dreams, or they are looking to buy an instrument for a student. Sometimes piano buyers spend less time researching, shopping for, and purchasing a piano than they do buying groceries, buying a house, or buying a new car. Other times, they will research and shop until they have exhausted the Library of Congress.
Sometimes buyers get over zealous. There's only so many styles of Brand A and Brand B uprights for instance. Let's say that for these brands, the quality should be fairly uniform among instruments of a single manufacturer. Many times a buyer will go to every piano store in the state and play one dealer against another with respect to price. A reputable dealer will have a price that he quotes you. You can make a counter offer. He can accept or refuse. Some dealers will offer the instrument at a price and that's it. Others like to play Turkish Barter Bazaar quoting a price that's almost double the nationally advertised price, but they'll sell it to you after much haggling for next to fifty cents on their original asking price. A reputable dealer usually works off of a nationally advertised price set by the manufacturer. You want to purchase from a reputable dealer who will stand behind the product, and a manufacturer who will stand behind the dealer. Vintage instruments work pretty much the same way when you go to the piano store, however, the price is the store's or restoration shop's. The warranty will be the reputation of the craftsman who restored the instrument, for there is no manufacturer support in general for vintage instruments. There may be no rhyme or reason to vintage instrument pricing.
Some restorations may look like very good deals compared to more expensive pricings....that is... until you touch, feel and play...You can't tell a book by its cover, folks! Very easy to compare pictures...especially on a vehicle like the internet...but you can't tell nothing folks till you get your behind to the piano store and play and hear for yourself! A picture and a description may be worth a 1,001 words, but touch, tone, and playability is the audible perception no internet can replace...and that makes effective buyer purchasing power!... Audible perception of tone!
One can re-write Gone with
the Wind to tell you how good they are at their craft...but until
you have the audible perception of tone when you hit the keys...it don't
mean a thing if it ain't got that zing! Does it? Of course not!
That's why I command you
to go play the blasted thing! Learn for yourself! Teach yourself!
Pianos are bought generally as an investment and as an instrument for enjoyment. Many times they are purchased by adults for adult use, and many times they are purchased by adults for a child or student. If you make only one trip to the music store to play the rascal, you are fooling somebody -- yourself! One has to have a few conjugal visits on the instrument which you've chosen as your "intended", before you know it's a "match."
Although looks are important, looks can be deceiving. The old maxim one cannot tell a book by its cover is fully applicable.
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