Most pianos has a heater rod installed, make sure to keep it turned on. If your piano is in a room that is not too big, you can use a room dehumidifer. Novita has a few good models for that.
You can also place a few thirsty hippo inside your piano.

Actually, slightly higher but constant humidities does not hurt your piano as much as highly fluctuating humidity. So, you should try to keep the humidity in room constant.

Pianos can also be "prepared" for wet climate. Usually pianos that are destined for asia market already are prepared for wet climate. If you are buying an European piano, then you can speak to the dealer and ask the manufacturer to prepare it accordingly.

Hi waiyean, thanks for the reply and advice. my piano is a new Kawai upright, comes with the heater rod. I’m planning to move it to living room next year when i move to new house – and i can no longer afford the option of "24x7" aircon.

The sales lady from Robert Piano suggested to use full-height cover to block out certain humidity. I think I will go for that once I turn off the aircon, maybe with a few Thirsty Hippos in the piano.

dear piano owners, just wondering, how do you handle the high humidity situation?


without aircon, the humidity in my piano room is 60-70%;
with aircon, it is about 40%, which is supposed to be in optimal range. but that causes additional $100+/month in utility bill.

i hv set my eyes on electric model piano CLP535. It has weighted keys and according to the sales guy at Yamaha in malaysia can be used for practice up to grade 8 and is exam model. Now m not do sure anymore. But is the photo that i hv taken at the Yamaha outlet in JB. [IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/13z282s.jpg[/IMG]

I have a Kawai ES-100 (entry level digital piano) and a Kawai K-800 (upright acoustic piano). and I'm a adult beginner on piano (learning with my daughter) My feeling about acoustic vs digital is:

1) The touch is very different. I tried higher end digital piano too (like Yamaha CLP 535 all the way to 585), acoustic piano still much better.

2) Sound: Actually digital piano produces good tone because it uses samples from top grand pianos. So it can produce nice sound more easily than the acoustic one, for the same player. This, might not be good for beginners as they won't have chance to improve the control skill. Controlling K-800 is far more difficult than controlling the ES100.

3) Digital piano is very very good choice when you need to play at night. The \"practice mode' on acoustic piano is not comparable.

4) From beginner to grade 8 is a long way. You don't need to aim the CLP535 to accompany you all the way. But it definitely is good enough for you to start. Very likely after a while you will feel the need to get an acoustic.

Hi



I am considering:
1. a new Hailun HL125 (seems to be fairly well received) from Piano Master at S$3800.
2. a used Yamaha U1J (claimed to be year2009 with warranty finishing soon) at S$2900.

Had viewed Hailun piano several times during our piano hunting. Between these above two options, I would go for the new Hailun HL125 for sure.

Generally speaking Yamaha is more generous to give free gifts. Robert Piano is harder for negotiation.

I thought the free gift is fixed at all Yamaha outlets?

Yeah, I shall put it this way: assuming both free gifts are fixed, Yamaha gives more than Kawai.

But again I think ultimately it is the piano that matters most. one or two additional free tuning does not make much difference.

Have been sourcing for piano and reading this post for weeks. Now have finally settled it (a new Kawai), and would like to share my experience:


We started from used pianos. Been to several used piano shops. Basically I categorize them in two groups: 1: expensive ones (not necessarily bad). Their asking price of a 30-year-old U3 can be over $5000, U1 above $4000. 2: Not so expensive ones (not necessarily good): They can let go a 30-year-old U3 at $4000 or even lower, and U1 at even $2000+. We looked at dozens of U3 and U1s, but could not decide sth like "oh we love this one".

Then we moved on to see the new Hailun Piano. It was really a good buy. The sound (in my subjective opinion) was better than those used U1 I had seen. And the 50% buy back (minus $300 if you choose not to upgrade, but just get cash back) in 5 years time was really attractive. But we did not end up buying one Hailun. Just could not make the decision on this and the passion to own a Hailun gradually retreated…

Then we went to Yamaha’s store. Have been there several times actually. Looked U1, U3 and YUS5. Then went to Kawai store (Robert Piano), also been there several times. After hours of comparison and calculating, decided to let my DD to choose and she chose Kawai as she liked the "mirror like" keyboad cover. Actually we also preferred Kawai’s sound. So we settled on it and with that we concluded the piano hunt. Generally speaking Yamaha is more generous to give free gifts. Robert Piano is harder for negotiation.

Almost all pianos in Singapore are more than enough for beginner level. Alls sales from all shops will try to convince you his piano is best buy (some will criticize other brands and some won’t). I think eventually you need to buy one that you or your DD/DS love.