Mrs SC would like piano. That is the easy part.

Any advice on whether to buy a good upright or a decent baby grand? And where from? Who is a reputable dealer?

We went to Tom Lee's to have a look and we could not get a straight answer on baby grands v good uprights.

It is quite a bg buy and I do not want to make a mistake.

The only advice I can give here, is learn to say NO! Though I've read the reaction to that word in another of your posts.

There's a music instrument street in Shanghai where you can buy all kinds of music instruments. It's called Jinling lu, right parallel to Huaihai road. Because there're many shops in one street, you can compare one after another until you find the best.

You can also rent a piano for the beginning to see how your Mrs SC likes it. Cause people lose interest on such things very easily.

It was quite tempting to buy a piano in China cause it is much cheaper than in Europe. But yet I didn't do so cause the relocation shipping is too expensive and complicated.

Now I have a Yamaha portable grand piano, I never thought I would enjoy digital piano, but i've been quite satisfied with it.

Buy electronic one or neighbours will hate you. Because in Shanghai buldings usually with piano strings vibrates whole building.

There's a Steinway shop in Wei Hai Rd between ShiMen Rd and ChengDu Rd.

Steinway is Steinway...

Marco

Adnimistrator wrote:Buy electronic one or neighbours will hate you. Because in Shanghai buldings usually with piano strings vibrates whole building.

if I still live in China, I don't care whether my neighbor's going to hate me or not. In China people are used to be disturbed by each other, aren't they? Such as TV noise, construction noise, spanking doors. So I can just play my piano as loudly as possible until 10pm!

But now i'm in Germany, I have to close all the windows and doors and adjust the sound of the piano to a suitable level so that I don't disturb the neighbors.

In some ways, China is really much more convenient.

if I still live in China, I don't care whether my neighbor's going to hate me or not.

Depends on neighbour. I had this older lady living above me and she was playing like five hours/day. It was really getting on my nerves. So I let for couple of nights TV loudly on (was sleeping at the office) and they came with peace offerings - insulation under piano and piano-free saturdays.