Author Archives: Justin Fox

My flatmate moved out recently and I’m tempted to turn the spare room into a music room, and a piano would sit real nice in there. I’ve had an itch to buy an old school upright Piano for ages now. Mum always had one in the house growing up, and I often would find myself sitting down and playing it.

There are SO many old pianos on eBay for around $300, some are even free so long as you organise delivery. I assume they’re not loved anymore, and people just want to get rid of them to clear up space in their homes.

At the same time I’ve also been super curious about electric pianos. I’ve had a play on some over the years, the weighted keys are feeling better than ever these days, and obviously, sound wise, these new electric pianos are amazing as they’ve sampled some of the world’s best grand pianos. Being able to adjust volume is a massive bonus (I don’t think my neighbours would be too happy about me bashing on an old school piano at 5am), so too having built in instrument sounds. Being able to record digitally makes for better sound quality AND the piano doubles up as a MIDI keyboard too… BUT there’s nothing quite like the old school, right?!

I’m thinking I’ll probably end up with both. Right now I don’t see any old school pianos that really screams BUY ME on eBay, so last Friday I pulled the trigger on a Casio Privia PX-160.

At close to $1k all up (for the package deal with stand, pedals and seat) the PX-160 is a LOT more than what I wanted to spend on a piano but I’m sure I’ve bought something that’ll last (the 5 year Casio warranty is pretty awesome).

The piano sounds great and the keys feel pretty damn amazing. The keys themselves have a very subtle texture on them which I don’t really like, only because I remember all the piano’s I’ve ever had in the house as having smooth ivory keys. The pedal board looks great, but feels too plastic for my liking. I went for the white/champagne model instead of the black one, only because I’d rather not have too many large heavy looking black boxes around the house. I think the piano looks pretty boring, even a tad ugly. If there were no curves on it at all it would have looked so much better. The stand looks even worse than the piano though, and up close it’s pretty nasty (even nastier than IKEA stuff), but hey, it works!

PS: I bought the Piano over the phone from Belfield Music, who delivered it the same day! When it got here I frantically put it all together only to find a dead key. SO ANNOYING! I took the piano to the shop the next day and the guys were super helpful and swapped it for a new one.

PPS: I’m thinking of getting piano lessons! At least a few to get me going. I’ve never learned how to read music, so now could be a good time to start!