Piano & Keyboards

The hammer inside a piano or keyboard:

real, sampled or missing, it decides what kind of instrument you are looking at. An upright strikes real strings with felt hammers and a grand does the same lying flat. A digital piano samples that sound behind a full keyboard of weighted keys, either in a furniture cabinet like Yamaha’s Arius or as a portable slab like Roland’s FP. Stage pianos from Nord or Roland leave out the speakers and assume a PA. Synthesizers from Korg or Yamaha make sounds rather than imitate a piano, and a MIDI controller from Arturia or Akai stays silent until it meets a computer. Jog-wheel controllers for mixing tracks belong with DJ equipment, and a piano accordion, keyboard and all, with accordions.

Key action decides more than the sound engine:

any serious brand’s piano sound will do, but the keys are what a pianist lives with. Fully weighted hammer action, graded so the bass feels heavier than the treble, is what a piano teacher will ask for. Semi-weighted keys suit synth players and producers; the light, springy keys of a portable keyboard teach songs but not the finger strength an acoustic demands. An acoustic asks for space and regular tuning instead, and gives back a touch no speaker reproduces.

An upright piano moved from the coast to the highlands:

does not arrive sounding the same. Guatemala packs hot, damp lowlands and a cool, drier highland into a few hours of road, and a soundboard swells and shrinks with the air. A piano carried from Retalhuleu up to Huehuetenango, or the other way, drifts out of tune and needs a few weeks to settle before a tuning will hold. Damp makes keys stick and strings rust; a sudden move into drier air is what cracks an old soundboard. Ask where a used upright has lived. A digital piano shrugs all of this off.

Upright pianos hold their price unevenly:

a well-kept or restored full-size Yamaha or Kawai upright is still asked at around Q35,000 or more second-hand, while an old American or European upright that has passed down a family can go for under Q10,000. Japanese uprights hold their tuning and parts are easy to find, while a tired pin block or moth-eaten hammers can cost more to fix than an old piano is worth. A new entry-level digital piano with weighted keys starts at around Q5,000 to Q6,000, and a used one drops as soon as the next model arrives, so a cheap acoustic that needs new hammers is rarely the bargain it looks.

Under the lid of a second-hand upright:

is most of what a technician would charge you to find. Lift the top lid: holed or deeply grooved hammer felt, and droppings under the keys, mean moths or mice have lived there. Play every key slowly and listen for notes that stay down, return sluggishly or buzz. If the strings of one note sound clearly apart, the tuning pins may be loose, and pins newer than their neighbours were replaced for a reason. Shine a torch on the soundboard from the back for cracks. On a synth or stage piano, move every slider and knob while holding a note: a jump or scratch means a worn control. A listing reeling off a long string of famous models at bargain prices and asking for money up front is not one to answer.

The floor your piano is on belongs in the listing:

next to the brand and serial number, because the move is what a buyer of an upright plans around. Mention the stairs and the doorway, say when it was last tuned, and photograph it with the top lid up so the hammers show. For a digital or a synth, give the exact model and say whether stand, pedal and bench go with it. Someone coming from Cobán for an upright will bring a truck and helpers but needs to hear about the stairs before setting off; someone coming for a digital will want to play it with the pedal plugged in, so have it set up and switched on.