A baby grand Challen appeared in my YT feed this morning and the sound took me by surprise in a good way. It was produced in the early 1960s so is getting on in years but they are selling for £1495 and so it seems an absolute bargain. When I went back to having lessons as a middle aged adult the teacher had one of these apart from it could have been a shorter model (4'6" perhaps).

Good job I live too far from this dealership, otherwise I would have to take a look.

    keff Could be. Piano certainly sounds (for its size) and looks good in the video, and as you stated, the price seems entirely reasonable. Suggest you spend an additional sum to have it checked by an independent technician before buying.

      8 days later

      In terms of market value it's about the right price. These pianos fetch very little on the second hand market. They're quite nice pianos, if you want a straightforward grand for the price of a slab digital, and you want it to have a nice action, they can be a really good buy. Challen grands that size had a proper Schwander action in them and it's a really nice touch.

      The bass sounds terrible to me, so no I don't think it's a bargain.

      Sydney Australia
      Retired part-time piano technician

      4 days later

      Yeah the bass is completely lacking in tone. That's true. The notes are virtually unrecognizable at least in the video.

      This is an interesting way to sell pianos... Making a short video and customers know at least a little bit about the product. I can't judge if the bass is really that bad, because I have no comprison to other grands in this leage. It could be a microphone issues as well, but this is unlikely as the retailer WANTS to sell this thing and I am sure he doing the best to make a proper recording. On the other hand, the voice of the presenter was very silent and dull, too.

      The actual thing I wanted to mention is: What about the tuning stability of this 60 year old grand? If they tune it and play it within a week, it is in tune. But what happens after 1 month, 2 month, half a year?
      This is something, I have no clue how to find this out, except of tuning a piano and waiting that amout of time while regulary playing on it. But this isn't going to happen, if you can see the piano only on a single day. Or is there an expert trick to figure this out?

      • keff replied to this.

        WieWaldi Or is there an expert trick to figure this out?

        In this case it would be important to employ an independent piano technician to inspect the piano before purchase and this would include checking the tightness of the tuning pins. If they are tight it should stay in tune. It would also be important to check the condition of the bridges, the soundboard, the action and strings.

            keff Tightness of the tuning pins? Do you mean, just turn them (all 200 pins) a quarter to the left and right and feel if there is always tension?
            Recently I saw a video by Stu Harrison (Merriam Music) and he said something about soundboard design and about its influence concerning tunig stability. Maybe I misunderstood something, because when I heard this I was wondering how this could be ever possible...