Grand Piano vs Keyboard

So my wife has wanted a grand piano, ala a real piano for years, mainly for the look of it, as neither of us play. We have a kid now and she has been really aching to get one, but we do not want to drop the kind of coin on a real grand piano. I play guitar and we went to guitar center that just opened in our town and we went to check out some of the higher end keyboard (I say higher end, because all we know is the $50 casio crap we have here at home haha).

Anyways, we messed around with a few and were amazed at their sound, feel, features, etc...

So my question to you key experts is why not go the elec. route vs a piano? I know its a loaded question but fire away.

It's better in my mind to drop $1k - $2k on a decent digital than to drop a lot more than that on a crummy grand piano.

In other words, if you aren't prepared to go all the way and spend enough to get a truly good grand piano, don't waste $10k or more on a crummy one.

If your wife is enamoured of the look, there are digitals that are built for the home that look like small grands (but they cost a lot more than $2k).

Around L.A., many movie stars emblazon their living room with Steinway grand pianos (rebuilt pianos usually around $25K or so).

So I asked the piano seller, "any of them play?". He answered, "No." Rich people use these pianos for decoration. If you want the effect that go for a real deal big and expensive Steinway or something. They will keep their value (with proper maintenance).

Now since you don't really play piano, it seems unnecessary to discuss piano feel and such. You can pretty much use price as an indicator of perceived value here but do add that pianos have the "furniture" issue built into the price. Thus a $1000 digital will not be equal to a $1000 piano. The digital will be better. However, a $3K piano will sound better than a $2K digital. A $20K piano even better. and so on. And the piano, if used, will hold most of its value.

But from a decorative point of view, there are lesser grand pianos. The question is that they may not keep their value in comparison to a Steinway. Digitals depreciate extremely fast. So depending on what you think of it in the long run, the decision could be different. You buy a digital for the a pure musical purpose. With all the wires hanging from the back, I wouldn't classify it as decorative.

Don't buy a piano as furniture, you will grow tired of it. If you want to learn to play then a digital or upright piano will be just as good. Anothe factor is grands are LOUD! Everyone in the house gets to hear your practice. Digitals let you practice at any hour with headphones, it's what I do. As for technique you can develope it on a digital quit nicely. Honest.

I'd buy an upright in that situation, rather than one of those digital grands.

You still have the problem of it taking over the house when you play it since they usually are in a central part of the house. When I play piano. No one sleeps and if you wanna watch tube , you head for the bedroom and turn the tv up loud. The headphones are the greatest thing that ever happned to playing music. Not only for the player ,, but the rest of the people in the house. rat

In hindsight I was thinking my post was gonna get flamed, kind of a lame question, but thanks all for the very informative replies...this will help in the family discussion on what to purchase.

Thanks

I get really mad when someone has a piano in their house doing absolutely nothing and nobody plays it. That is, of course, if it's a really nice one and not a piece of {censored}. If it's a piece of {censored}, then better you than me cuz that's one more thing you eventually have to bring to the dump.

Anyway, go with a digital. I don't see why not, especially if you got something like the Yamaha CP-300 which feels really good as a mock piano. The sound is quite impressive as well, so it's perfect to learn on. That's about $2500; certainly better than a $25000 conversation piece.