# Piano



## gleeruss (Sep 3, 2012)

Anyone have any experience bringing a piano into Mexico? (Part of household goods).
It is an studio upright Yamaha A4, weighs about 400 lbs (I guess). 

Anyone bought a piano in Mexico - price comparison with US? Brands available?


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

I sold my Charles Walter upright before coming. The costs to hire a mover to haul it (and my other stuff) were more than the value of all my possessions added together! So I sold/donated most of what I owned and hauled down my "won't give it up" possessions in a couple of car trips over the next year or so.

Pianos are very common in Mexico but slightly more expensive in general than in the US. I can't really list brands available but I can say that I have seen most of the major brands here (Steinway, Yamaha, Baldwin etc.). 

Caveat:
Piano is not my primary instrument so I don't pay as close of attention as I could to the piano market here.

I think that the small amount of extra money you would pay to get a comparable level of piano here would be far outweighed by the cost of moving your current one here - and that assumes that Aduana would let you bring your piano into the country. And if they do let you enter with it, who knows how much they would charge you in duties.

I would say sell it and buy another one in Mexico... unless it is indeed one of your "won't give it up" possessions. Then you'll just need to eat costs of getting here.


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## FHBOY (Jun 15, 2010)

circle110 said:


> I sold my Charles Walter upright before coming... ....Then you'll just need to eat costs of getting here.


I'm in a similar situation. I am a recreational player only. I have had to decide to sell my Knabe Baby Grand circa 1957 [my mother bought it for me when I was seven years old] (or trade it) for a Yamaha Clavinova. The Knabe was too old and way too expensive to move, as well as find a space for in our new house. Lastly I was concerned about the change of climate as it would affect an acoustic piano.

That being said, concerning bringing even the Clavinova, I was warned by our movers that if the manufacture date of the Yamaha was less than six months from the date I cross the border, I would have to pay about 50% of the price as duty on it! So even getting the Yamaha here in the USA and giving it to the movers has become a potential problem. If I can find a used Yamaha with an older manufacture date, that may be possible.

But, even though I have been unable to verify this, I should be able to find, in Guadalajara, a piano dealer that sells Yamaha Clavinovas. If I can get the right price for the Knabe, I think I'd be better off banking that money, and then buying in Mexico.

It is similar to a car purchase - nationalizing a car is way more expensive (generally) and much more of a hassle then selling it, banking the money, and buying a Mexican plated car in country.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

Yes, I brought my piano 14 years ago. We moved our whole household contents, which filled 90% of a container, so the piano didn’t attract any particular attention among all the furniture and boxes.

After we had been here a few years, my kids’ music teacher connected us with a piano tuning and repair shop in downtown Mexico City. They took apart the piano, repaired and refinished it and put it back together at a fraction of the cost that it would have been back home. It’s some 80 or 90 years old, and now it’s beautiful again.

It made me think that if I were ever moving a container again and had some money to invest, I would seek out as many old piano wrecks (good instruments but in poor condition) as I could and fill up the remaining space in the container with them, then have them fixed up here. I’m thinking of the large uprights or baby grands that have been owned by community clubs or churches for many decades, that are in terrible condition but the cost of getting them fixed is prohibitively expensive, so they just sit there, or are even thrown out.


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## FHBOY (Jun 15, 2010)

maesonna said:


> Yes, I brought my piano 14 years ago. We moved our whole household contents, which filled 90% of a container, so the piano didn’t attract any particular attention among all the furniture and boxes.
> 
> After we had been here a few years, my kids’ music teacher connected us with a piano tuning and repair shop in downtown Mexico City. They took apart the piano, repaired and refinished it and put it back together at a fraction of the cost that it would have been back home. It’s some 80 or 90 years old, and now it’s beautiful again.
> 
> It made me think that if I were ever moving a container again and had some money to invest, I would seek out as many old piano wrecks (good instruments but in poor condition) as I could and fill up the remaining space in the container with them, then have them fixed up here. I’m thinking of the large uprights or baby grands that have been owned by community clubs or churches for many decades, that are in terrible condition but the cost of getting them fixed is prohibitively expensive, so they just sit there, or are even thrown out.


Wanna buy a piano?


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## DNP (May 3, 2011)

maesonna said:


> Yes, I brought my piano 14 years ago. We moved our whole household contents, which filled 90% of a container, so the piano didn’t attract any particular attention among all the furniture and boxes.
> 
> After we had been here a few years, my kids’ music teacher connected us with a piano tuning and repair shop in downtown Mexico City. They took apart the piano, repaired and refinished it and put it back together at a fraction of the cost that it would have been back home. It’s some 80 or 90 years old, and now it’s beautiful again.
> 
> It made me think that if I were ever moving a container again and had some money to invest, I would seek out as many old piano wrecks (good instruments but in poor condition) as I could and fill up the remaining space in the container with them, then have them fixed up here. I’m thinking of the large uprights or baby grands that have been owned by community clubs or churches for many decades, that are in terrible condition but the cost of getting them fixed is prohibitively expensive, so they just sit there, or are even thrown out.


Share your secret. What's the name of the place?

Sent from my iPod touch using ExpatForum


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## stilltraveling (May 7, 2012)

gleeruss said:


> Anyone bought a piano in Mexico - price comparison with US? Brands available?


Outside of the capital, pianos are hard to find here and tuners are almost nonexistent. I've offered my neighbor exorbitant amounts of money for her old upright but she won't part with it.


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## FHBOY (Jun 15, 2010)

stilltraveling said:


> Outside of the capital, pianos are hard to find here and tuners are almost nonexistent. I've offered my neighbor exorbitant amounts of money for her old upright but she won't part with it.


Ergo, I've traded my acoustic for a Yamaha Clavinova 430, it will never need tuning, has only three circuit boards in it. Bye-bye tuners.


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## stilltraveling (May 7, 2012)

FHBOY said:


> Ergo, I've traded my acoustic for a Yamaha Clavinova 430, it will never need tuning, has only three circuit boards in it. Bye-bye tuners.


There are electronic pianos with a very good acoustic feel to them. I'll probably break down and get one. They're a lot more portable than a real piano and orders of magnitude cheaper.


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## DNP (May 3, 2011)

FHBOY said:


> Ergo, I've traded my acoustic for a Yamaha Clavinova 430, it will never need tuning, has only three circuit boards in it. Bye-bye tuners.


You're going to be very happy with your choice. Congratulations!

Sent from my iPod touch using ExpatForum


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## FHBOY (Jun 15, 2010)

stilltraveling said:


> There are electronic pianos with a very good acoustic feel to them. I'll probably break down and get one. They're a lot more portable than a real piano and orders of magnitude cheaper.


I did not believe it! I've been pounding away at my Knabe for 50+ years, so I was soooo skeptical about digitals - I remeber my ROland keyboard days, you know? When I sat down at the Clavinoa....holy cow. That GH3 keyboard feels like my Knabe. OK, the keys aren't real ivory and ebony, and they are shiny plastic, but for me that doesn't make a difference.

I get my Yamaha on Thursday and the dealer gave me $1800 USD in trade and found me a Yamaha that was manufactured before June 2012, which takes care of the duty at the border, he's even giving me the invoice he received from Yamaha to prove it.

The 30 watt speakers are plenty loud for me, and it's got all sort of buttons!


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## cuylers5746 (Mar 19, 2012)

*Piano maybe a bad bet?*



gleeruss said:


> Anyone have any experience bringing a piano into Mexico? (Part of household goods).
> It is an studio upright Yamaha A4, weighs about 400 lbs (I guess).
> 
> Anyone bought a piano in Mexico - price comparison with US? Brands available?


Hi gleeruss;

Are you moving to anywhere it might be tropical? Maybe a bad choice bringing the piano?
I mean in the heat & humidity unless you're a trained piano tuner - you might not be able to keep it tuned properly?

Here in Tepic in the Tropic's we have a dear friend a nationally recognized performer, that owns two night clubs here and bought a new Yamaha Bay Grand in Guadalajara and had it delivered here in Tepic. After two years of fruitless attempts to keep it properly tuned, and going through many a tuner he's given up keeps it in the front room as a good place to place your drinks on and discuss small talk over a cocktail?

Maybe this is reason no. 3 not to bring it?

Cuyler


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## FHBOY (Jun 15, 2010)

FHBOY said:


> I did not believe it! I've been pounding away at my Knabe for 50+ years, so I was soooo skeptical about digitals - I remeber my ROland keyboard days, you know? When I sat down at the Clavinoa....holy cow. That GH3 keyboard feels like my Knabe. OK, the keys aren't real ivory and ebony, and they are shiny plastic, but for me that doesn't make a difference.
> 
> I get my Yamaha on Thursday and the dealer gave me $1800 USD in trade and found me a Yamaha that was manufactured before June 2012, which takes care of the duty at the border, he's even giving me the invoice he received from Yamaha to prove it.
> 
> The 30 watt speakers are plenty loud for me, and it's got all sort of buttons!


One of the reason, definately. Even the Clavinova, on an upgrade has plastic clad wooden keys, and that concerned me. The 430 is all plastic. If I was moving to the coast, I'd be more concerned, but in the Sierra Madres, the humidity is much lower and thought it wouldn't be as bad a problem. Just an additional thought.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

Re my post above, and my fantasy of rescuing pianos that could be restored in Mexico: This story is from the BBC, but the discarded pianos it talks about are in the U.S.
“A local piano restorer had hoped to take it, […] but the cost of repair would have been much greater than its value. It would have been for love not money - and when a big tax bill came in, he just couldn't afford it.”
“A piano has thousands of moving parts, making restoration a very time-consuming, and specialist business. Just polishing a piano can take 70 hours.”

See also this link at the bottom of the story; a website that tries to link up people who have a piano to get rid of with people looking for a piano.


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