Upright Piano Buyer's Guide: Buying and Selling in Australia

An upright piano is the one most Australian homes end up with. It fits against a wall, it suits a living room or a teaching studio, and a good one keeps going for decades. That long life is the reason buying a second hand upright piano takes more care than buying most instruments. A piano can look immaculate in the photos and be worn out inside, and one that has spent years in a garage can still play beautifully.

This guide covers what to look at, listen for and ask about when you're shopping for an upright piano, and what to get ready if you're the one selling. Most of it is aimed at pre-loved pianos, since that's where condition varies most, though the playing and pedal checks are worth running on a new piano too. If you want to see what's out there as you read, the piano and keyboard listings on ORCHESTRATED are a good place to start spotting the details below.

Start with the age and the maker

Pianos wear slowly, so age is a starting point and not a verdict. A piano that's fifty years old can be in better shape than one built a decade ago if it has been kept dry and tuned regularly.

Look for the maker's name on the fallboard, the hinged cover that folds down over the keys. The serial number is usually stamped on the cast iron plate you can see behind the strings, or on the soundboard. Most of the major makers publish serial number lists, so a quick search tells you the year it was built. A seller who can't or won't show you the serial number is worth a second question.

Yamaha and Kawai are two names you'll see often in Australian listings, and a Yamaha upright piano is easy to look up and compare against others of the same model. A lesser known name isn't a red flag by itself. It just means the physical checks below matter even more.

Size matters in a practical way too. Taller uprights have longer strings, which usually gives a fuller bass, while a smaller studio model fits better in a tight room. Measure your wall space and the doorways it has to pass through before you fall for anything.

Ask where the piano has lived

A piano is mostly wood, felt and steel, and all three react to the air around them. Swings in humidity make the wood swell and shrink, which is how cracks, loose joints and drifting tuning start. A piano that has spent years beside a coastal window, in a damp back room or next to a heater has had a harder life than one in a stable interior room.

Ask the seller plainly: where has it stood, for how long, and has it been moved much? Sun through a window fades the case and dries out the finish. Damp shows up later as rust on the strings and swollen keys. None of this rules a piano out, but it should change how closely you check the next few things.

Open the lid and look inside

Lift the top lid and, if you can, take off the lower panel that sits below the keyboard. Use your phone torch. You're looking at the hammers, the action and the strings.

Start with the hammers, the felt heads that strike the strings. New hammers are rounded and even. Old ones develop grooves where they've hit the strings for years, and heavily grooved hammers sound thin or harsh. Hammers can be reshaped or replaced, so grooves are a point for negotiating and not an automatic no, but they add to the cost of getting the piano right.

Check the felt for moth damage. Moths do eat piano felt, and the result is bald patches or loose threads. Look along the strings for rust. A little surface bloom on the bass strings is common. Heavy rust, or strings that have snapped, points to a piano that has been damp.

Then look at the soundboard, the large wooden panel behind the strings that amplifies the sound. Fine cracks are common in older pianos and don't always matter, but a crack with a buzz you can hear when you play near it is a different story. Ask a technician about anything that looks wide or has lifted.

Last, look for repairs: smeared glue, mismatched screws, parts that look newer than the rest. Repairs aren't bad in themselves. Unexplained ones are worth asking about.

Play every key and use all the pedals

Sit down and play every note slowly, from the lowest to the highest. You're listening for keys that stick, keys that don't come back up, notes that don't sound at all and notes that buzz. Then play a scale with a light touch and another with a firm one. The keys should feel even under your fingers, with no note that suddenly feels heavy or sluggish.

Repeat a single note quickly. A healthy action lets the key return fast enough to strike again. A tired one makes fast repeated notes stutter.

Play a slow chord in the middle of the keyboard and let it ring. The sound should fade gradually. If it dies almost straight away, the soundboard or the bridges may have problems.

Now the pedals. The right pedal lifts all the dampers, so notes keep sounding after you let go of the keys. Press it, play a chord, then release it. The sound should stop cleanly. On an upright, the left pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings and softens the touch. The middle pedal does different jobs on different pianos, and on some it slides a strip of felt between the hammers and strings as a practice mute. Test all three. A pedal that squeaks is an easy fix. One that does nothing may not be.

Then play something you know well. A piano can pass every technical test and still feel wrong under your hands.

Listen for tuning problems

Tuning is where a second hand upright piano surprises people most. A piano that hasn't been tuned for years usually sits flat, and bringing it back up to pitch takes more than one visit because the strings pull against each other as they're raised. Ask when it was last tuned and by whom.

You can hear a lot yourself. Play a single note in the middle of the keyboard. Most notes have two or three strings tuned to the same pitch, and if those strings have drifted apart you'll hear a slow wobble in the sound. A little wobble is normal in a piano that's overdue. A harsh, out of tune sound across many notes says tuning has been neglected for a long time.

The more serious issue is the tuning pins, the steel pegs the strings wind around. If the pins have gone loose, the piano won't hold its tuning however often it's tuned. A technician can test this in a couple of minutes. If you're spending real money, paying a tuner or piano technician to inspect the instrument before you commit is a sensible step. Ask the seller if they'd allow it.

Plan the move before you agree on the price

A piano is heavy. Many uprights weigh well over 200 kilograms, and the weight sits in an awkward, top-heavy shape. Moving one is a job for professional piano removalists, not a few friends and a hired ute.

Before you settle on a price, sort out the basics: how many steps there are at the pick-up address, whether there are tight corners or narrow hallways, and what the delivery address looks like. Stairs add time and risk. Agree who books and pays the removalists. Usually that's the buyer, but say it out loud so nobody is surprised on the day.

After the move, give the piano a few weeks to settle in its new room, then book a tune. Moving shifts the tuning, and a new room shifts it again.

If you're selling an upright piano

A buyer who can't see the piano in person is relying on your listing, so give them what they'd check themselves.

Write down the maker, the model and the serial number. Photograph the whole piano, then open the lid and photograph the hammers, the strings and the keys. Show the maker's name on the fallboard. Say what's wrong with it: a sticking key, a cracked soundboard, a pedal that squeaks. A listing that names its flaws gets better enquiries than one that hides them, because the people who turn up already know what they're looking at.

Mention when it was last tuned and by whom. If it's overdue, think about a tune before you list. A tuned piano lets a buyer judge the sound properly and removes one common reason for an offer to drop.

Spell out access. Say how many steps there are, whether there's a lift and how wide the doorways are, and make it clear the buyer arranges removal. That saves a lot of back and forth.

For pricing, look at what similar upright pianos are listed for, matching on maker, age and condition. Be wary of an old valuation or what you paid years ago. Both can sit a long way from what a buyer will pay now.

Finding the best upright piano for you

People search for the best upright piano as if there's one answer. The right piano depends on who's playing it, how often, and in which room. A child starting lessons and a pianist preparing for exams will want different things from the same instrument.

A teacher is a good person to bring to a viewing, or to ask for advice beforehand.

Find or list an upright piano

Browse upright pianos and other keyboards on ORCHESTRATED, where sellers list both new and pre-loved instruments, or look through everything that's listed if you're still deciding what to play.

Selling one? Individual accounts pay a one-time $29.95 AUD per listing, and business accounts pay $29.95 AUD a month for unlimited listings. There's no commission on the sale either way, and you and the buyer sort out payment and the move between you. If a category is missing or you have a question, get in touch.

Uprights that have never been played and ones with decades of playing behind them are listed side by side on ORCHESTRATED, so you can weigh up both before you decide.