Christmas/Birthday present for my son!

mumoffour77

Aww Rach and smokie....yous are fab!! xx
As is everyone else who has helped!! x
Thanks millions!!

Lol I darent put it on FB as they would only see...or sneak on to my profile and nosey!! (and delete their friends who added ME as a friend!! Heaven forbid!! :P

MyRubyRed

Hey love, can't help with the piano thing but don't say sorry about "bumming and blowing" about the boy's talent. I can just hear that fab NI accent when I hear that phrase and youve brightened up my day. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PS.. My mum is from the North and Ive spent so many happy times there with amaing family and wonderful people xxxx

smokiewater

Electric ones - Mum get them into the shop all the time - she is trying to source a wooden (real) one at the minute, I have assured her that you will collect - will text when I have more info!

nathanielle_jones

Hi Momoffour

There are a few ways to get hold of a cheap(ish) piano:

Gumtree. Occasionally an old piano will crop up in the 'Freebies' section, the last one I noticed was just over a week ago where someone had an upright that was taking up space in his garage and just wanted rid of it. It's worth checking in on, but they do tend to go quite fast:

belfast.gumtree.com/belfast/free-stuff_2769_1.html

There's also a 'Stuff Wanted' section. There's no harm in posting a request here - perhaps you'll pre-empt the next poster looking to get rid of one:

belfast.gumtree.com/belfast/for-sale-wanted-adverts_1560_1.html

Freecycle has a similar 'Wanted' section. You'll need to create an account to use it, which can be a bit of a hassle (I found out the hard way that the initial sign up usually fails - I had to put my details in, go to 'Forgot Username', get that emailed to me, then 'Forgot password' to finally get into my account) but the ethos of the site is lovely and would be sympathetic to your situation. The address is:

groups.freecycle.org/belfastUKfreecycle/posts/all

If you have no luck with either of those, Ebay isn't bad at all. I bought an electric piano from there a few years ago for £200 with £10 postage and it's been perfect. Some Ebay retailers (notably Gear4Music) will sell 'seconds', pianos with little dints or marks on the woodwork. As someone who wanted a piano for the longest time, cosmetic damage doesn't matter in the slightest as long as it sounds as it should.

Alternatively, you could always try a keyboard. They're considerably cheaper. There's a stigma about keyboards, a cheap/old one can look/sound/feel like a toy, but a lot of newer brands and models are way, way better than you'd imagine. The Yamaha PSR295 for example, has weighted keys (if they aren't weighted it doesn't feel like a piano and it's a bit plasticky) and touch sensitivity (meaning the harder you press the key, the louder/sharper the note), and the quality of the sound it made was surprisingly good. The obvious downside is the lack of a full range of keys, but I find that on a full 88 key piano I rarely use the notes at the extreme ends. Basically it does the job well for not a lot of money (I've seen them go on Ebay for around £40). Check out a few reviews or see if you can find them in action on Youtube.

Good luck with your search. It's a lovely gift idea and I'm sure with your son's ability and passion for the piano he'll be thanking you for a long time to come. I know I would.

blueberrypie

nathanielle_jones wrote: »

Freecycle has a similar 'Wanted' section. You'll need to create an account to use it, which can be a bit of a hassle (I found out the hard way that the initial sign up usually fails - I had to put my details in, go to 'Forgot Username', get that emailed to me, then 'Forgot password' to finally get into my account) but the ethos of the site is lovely and would be sympathetic to your situation. The address is:

groups.freecycle.org/belfastUKfreecycle/posts/all

The Belfast group split off from freecycle last year, as did most of the UK groups. They can now be found at the freegle site - http://www.ilovefreegle.org - and there's a list of the NI groups at http://www.ilovefreegle.org/groups/northern-ireland