What Type of Piano to Buy for a 300 Euro Budget?

You’ve decided to start or restart piano and do things right! You’re planning a good budget to buy your instrument (around 300 euros) but what type of piano can you get for this budget? How not to make a mistake in your purchase?

We’re going to present 3 types of pianos that you can buy for this budget with their advantages and disadvantages:

• New digital pianos
• Used digital pianos
• Used pianos

We’ve intentionally chosen only pianos offering touch imitating that of a “real” piano even if at this price, few new instruments offer a real “weighted touch,” hence one of the interests of choosing a good used piano.

New Digital Pianos

The offer is wide in this budget (between 300 and 400 euros).

You’ll have good instruments that will be solid. The difference between brands mainly lies in the keyboard touch offered and the quality of their piano sound reproduction.

We advise you to always try the instrument before buying it to find the one that gives you the best sensations. Even if you don’t yet play like Elton John or Kathia Buniatishvili, it doesn’t matter! ask the seller for headphones then listen to the sound of notes, from bass to treble, play a little C scale, one or two simple little chords… and compare pianos with each other. What’s important is to choose an instrument you love.

Whether you buy online or in store, prices will be the same (or very close). Nowadays stores align with internet site prices. Sometimes they’re even cheaper! Worth comparing therefore…

Also you should know that at this budget, new digital pianos are the entry-level instruments of brands. The quality of components and materials won’t be the best. But to start it’s already very good!

Finally we advise you to favor instruments sold by major brands (Roland, Yamaha, Korg…etc) which benefit from all these brands’ know-how in sound and touch and their experience. However, instruments

Lidl, a mass retail brand, markets a new Colmann digital piano in France at the price of 449€. We’re curious to test this model. What is the quality of materials used? The quality of sounds it offers and its touch? Its lifespan? Is it guaranteed? And is it that cheap? According to the manufacturer it has the quality of a higher-end digital piano equivalent to pianos costing around 1000 euros.

new digital pianos:

😎 Advantages

• Safety of new / warranty
• Access to a keyboard with touch allowing nuances but not a “real weighted touch” (permitted by weighted keys or use of hammer mechanics)
• Solid instruments
• Quality sounds (for good brands)

😪 Disadvantages

• Quality of materials and sounds sometimes disappointing (a bit too “plastic”).
• Instruments often thick (to take into account to correctly adjust bench height)

example of new digital piano offer:

Below two examples of entry-level instruments from two major market brands.

https://www.thomann.de/fr/korg_b2n.htm

https://www.thomann.de/fr/yamaha_np_32_piaggero_black.htm

Note that stands or furniture to place the piano are not included in this price and that at this range level, as we saw above, these instruments don’t offer weighted keys or hammer mechanics that give a touch sensation closer to real piano touch. To have weighted keys the first price is the store brand instrument.

https://www.thomann.de/fr/thomann_sp_5600.htm

Otherwise you need to add at least 150€ to access them with major brands.

Used Digital Pianos

With a budget of 300 euros we find very good used instruments that often cost about 1000 euros new. These sales are mainly made between individuals (notably on Leboncoin.fr), professionals almost never offer them. These instruments are not entry-level, they’re quality with often very good natural touches and the best sounds. But beware of their condition and age! It’s important to test these pianos well before buying them (we’re soon going to publish a complete article on this subject). We advise you not to buy an instrument that’s more than 10 years old or else ask if it was serviced recently? If it’s been played a lot? By whom? By trying it you’ll realize the state of the keyboard: if the touch is very light (a small pressure is enough to press down the keys) or poorly balanced (some keys are light and others hard), it’s a sign of fatigue. We advise you not to take a tired instrument or else to negotiate it down strongly.

Sites like www.audiofanzine.fr give a rating for the majority of existing instruments which will allow you to negotiate the price if the seller is a bit too optimistic about their resale price. Also a good negotiation technique is to find the lowest price currently offered online for the same instrument but new. If the gap is small between the new price and the price of the used instrument offered by the seller, it will be easy to ask them for justifications of their high price and potentially make them lower it.

used digital pianos:

😎 Advantages

• Have access to mid-range instruments of very good quality
• Access to a keyboard with a “real” weighted touch. (thanks to weighted keys or use of hammer mechanics)
• Very interesting prices (often negotiable)
• Ecological?

😪 Disadvantages

• Instruments sometimes tired (important to test well)
• Not (always) warranty nor delivery

example of used digital piano offer:

We found 3 examples on a well-known individual sales site.

First here’s an example of an instrument that has interesting potential with this Korg sp-250. It’s cheaper than its rating on www.audiofanzine.com (on this site, it’s well documented and has received several good reviews). It seems in good condition. Korg is one of the reliable brands:

https://fr.audiofanzine.com/piano-numerique/korg/Sp-250/

Here’s an example of an instrument that has interesting potential with this Yamaha P-45 which seems almost new. We easily find its current new price on search engines. Used it’s much cheaper. If it’s in good condition, the question is “why is the seller selling it?“. If the answer reassures you, then go. And especially, always try to negotiate the price down. This instrument new at 429€ minimum, you can try to get it at 300€ with the individual selling it.

Here’s an example of an instrument not to buy. Sometimes some sellers feel ambitious and try to sell instruments that are more than 10 years old at good prices or even sell their used instrument at the new price like in this example:

Used Pianos

At 300 euros, very rare will be the professionals who will offer you a used piano or even none. Generally, you need to count 4 times this price to have a small piano of acceptable quality.

At this price, it will therefore mainly be an individual who will be likely to sell you their used piano and there beware of the hassle to come! But also the potential deal of the century… Often pianos for sale are old bulky family pianos. Apart from some makers like Pleyel, Schimmel or Rameau, old pianos are often devoid of interest.

On individual sales sites, we can’t count the ads with the “urgent” logo, or where we see in the photos as the last piece of furniture in the house, a piano for sale… In that case, if the piano isn’t too old and of a recognized brand, there may be a deal to make.

But it will be at the cost of efforts and the risk of buying an instrument in bad condition or simply a bad instrument. If you attempt to buy a used piano between individuals, we advise you to be accompanied when testing the instrument by someone in your circle who knows about it and can try it also to give you their opinion.

used pianos:

😎 Advantages

• Play on a real piano!
• Possible to make a good deal…

😪 Disadvantages

• Risky purchase
• No delivery
• all the constraints of a real piano even if of poor quality (tuning, complicated moves, maintenance..)
• relations with neighbors!

To give you an idea, the Yamaha B1 piano which is the reference for study pianos, costs 3500 euros new on average (upright study pianos are the smallest and cheapest pianos)

Below are two examples of classified ads for upright pianos that sound like “I beg you, get rid of this piano for me, the only remaining piece of furniture in my living room!” where your negotiation margin will be large!

Our Advice

In all cases, whatever your choice, we have only one piece of advice to give you: Test, test, test! The purchase of a piano must be the result of a “love at first sight” with the instrument. You’re going to see it and hear its sound every day!

The quality and lifespan of a digital or acoustic piano is linked to the quality of materials with which it’s assembled and the manufacturer’s know-how.

Thank you for reading, don’t hesitate to contact us for any question, remark or article suggestion to write!

musically,