Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum About to pull a trigger on a Kawai GX-2. Advice/Thoughts?

After playing on an upright for a little over a year, and a digital before that, my daughter is showing enough interest and hard work that I want to upgrade to a baby grand. Furthermore, I play a lot myself (classical and pop music) so we get a lot of use out of our keyboards.

The Kawai GX-2 is in our price range, especially with a sale going on (at $30K), and the dealer is the same dealer we got the upright on, and I would be getting the full trade-up value on it, while still getting the sale price (so no shenanigans on the trade-up... I am very happy dealing with this piano dealer).

My thoughts on the piano is surprisingly positive, so much so that I'd like to hear some other opinions. Before this, I never played a Kawai that I liked... they tended to be too mellow and the touch too heavy. But this one had the best action among the pianos I tried, and sounds wonderful to my ears. Hard to describe, but it had so much control. For some reason, ornaments on Mozart sonatas just flowed out of my fingers in ways I might struggle on other keyboards. My previous outings with Kawai were older and lower models (GL and possibly RX), but this one felt and sounded great to me.

Other pianos that would be in the same price range would push me to other dealers, where I might struggle with getting a better after-trade-in value with my upright. Furthermore, the Yamaha CX models I have tried at other stores, whereas wonderful, would be substantially more money, before even getting into any hit on the trade-in value.

Estonia is another possibility. My daughter's piano teacher has a 210 I love which is way too big. I also really liked the 190, but it's still a bit too big (the 5'11" GX-2 is already pushing it for our small room). The smaller 168 is real nice, and if I didn't try the GX-2, I would have thought that would be the one. It's possible I can get a similar after-trade-in value on the Estonia 168, but whereas I really like the sound of the Estonia, I'm surprised I like the Kawai action on this one more.

I feel like I'm rambling, but as this is such a huge purchase for me, I feel like I could use some encouragement, thoughts, advice, opinions from this nice community! Thanks!

I am not as experienced as others do I will let them reply to the price, etc. I’ll still try to help later on!

BUT...
I hope you get a great piano
You have some good choices with that budget, very good pianos!!

If both you and your daughter really like the Kawai, there's no reason not to go with it. But I understand your hesitancy. A piano purchase is a pretty intense thing and we want to feel like we've made the best choice possible.

Have you discussed with any other dealers what they would give you in trade-in for your upright? If not, I would suggest you do. For example, if I'm understanding you right, you haven't discussed with a Yamaha dealer what kind of price + trade-in value they could give you, right? If so, then by all means, go, play a few Yamahas and see what the dealer has to say. If nothing else, this will give you peace of mind that you know what you're saying no to. Or you might find that they are ready to give you a competitive offer when they hear you have an offer for a Kawai grand as well. In that case, you would choose between pianos rather than between price.

There's nothing wrong with what you're considering, in my mind. The sale price on the new piano isn't a ripping great deal, but neither is it a bad one...and that's probably mitigated by getting full trade-in on your upright. And it's perfectly fine to prefer the 6 inch longer GX-2 to the 168. The more direct comparison would be a GX-3 or SK-3 vs the 190, which are both not in your budget/size constraints.

From the tone of your post, you like the piano and you like the dealer.

Go with your gut. Kawai makes a great piano.

Our dealer has a GL-30 right next to the GX-2 and to my ear the GX-2 had a FAR superior tone.

I appreciate the responses so far!


This is a good idea, and I think I will try to find some time to make it there again today. They seemed to be more willing to negotiate on the Estonia's than the Yamaha's, but their tone may change if they know I am imminently about to buy from a different dealer.

I guess I was a bit surprised at how much of a premium the Yamaha's sell for, such that I admit I haven't spent a lot of time seriously trying to negotiate the prices as it seems too big a gap in price. In a perfect world, I would hope I can get the C2X for substantially less than the GX-2 after trade-in, in which the decision would get very interesting.



Yea, I felt the same way comparing it to other models. Very happy with the GX series and even playing a Shigeru Kawai there didn't make me feel that it was a substantially better piano.



Yep, if I was willing to go up to 6'3" and with another $10k budget, this decision would be extremely difficult. I think I might give the Yamaha's another go if I can make it back to the dealer (I'd be looking at a C2X), but it seems like I'd be in a similar spot as with the 168 since it's a similar size... feeling like I prefer the GX-2 still, unless the offer price starts to get interesting.

I have a C2 (no X), I bought it before the pandemic, it's about 22 years old. It's the perfect size for my living room and just a really great instrument.

Re this:

It's always hard to know what's behind that sort of thing... But I would guess it has nothing to do with the quality of the instruments in question. Maybe they paid less to get the Estonias into their store? Maybe they know the Estonias won't sell quite as well because of Yamaha's name recognition?

When I was piano shopping, I played several used instruments at a dealer's shop, and I think there were several Yamahas (a G3, a C3, I don't remember all of them). Anyway, the prices didn't make sense to me, the C3 seemed just way over priced for its age. The dealer maybe said something about being able to offer me a better deal on one of the other instruments, so I asked point blank, why is this piano so expensive. He said he was selling it on consignment for someone and they were not willing to go below a certain number and he (the dealer) also needed to make some money from having it sit on his showroom floor. I appreciated his candor and it sort of gave me an inside look into the idiosyncrasies of pricing!

New pianos will probably have fewer idiosyncrasies than used pianos, but since then I sort of assume that there's always some details we can't see from the outside that influence how things are priced.

I'm in the same boat as you by the way. Been looking for about 2 months and NOT in a big hurry. The economy is a BIG question mark and I have a gut feeling that piano sales are about to take a big hit. With that I bet the prices start to get a whole lot more competitive.

I have not tried a lot of GX2's
but the one I did try I really really liked the feel & the tone.

The issue was there was a one of a kind Steinway A from 1912 that was beautifully rebuild & refurbished
so I grabbed that.
but I came very close to getting the GX2
I inquired about a GX3 because my price range was $40k - $45k

But the one and only GX2 was a beautiful piano.
These are just my thoughts.

brdwyguy

PS the GX3 I would have had to buy sight unseen and I was not about to plop down $40k for it
when i had a beautiful Steinway for the same price that i was playing and loved.

but the GX2 gave it a run for it's money!

True that’s what I’m forseeing as well but I think it might not happen until 2023 and after as currently (speaking of Yamaha)… you need to place a deposit and wait for 3-6 months (I am still waiting for mine). I was in Canada over the weekend from US and was also told there is a 6 months+ wait.

Very coincidentally, I was just at a friend's this morning and played their brand new GX-2 for a few minutes. It's a beautiful piano with an excellent tone and smooth action. I think it, along with the Yamaha C2X/C3X, are in a bit of a sweet spot of quality/performance/price.

I don't think you can make a bad choice either way. Both dealers are reputable and both are fine instruments that you and your daughter can enjoy for a very long time. At this point, it's just going to be a matter of preference. The good news is the Yamaha dealer currently has a C2X on their floor (or they did yesterday when I was there) so you can try out both again nearly back-to-back to get a final sense of what you prefer.

This is where guitar players have it made. So easy to get a variety of guitars for so much less money!

My only addition to this thread is to make sure you give yourself enough time to be pretty certain that you are ready to pull the trigger. Go back and play the pianos again. Have your daughter play the pianos again. Make sure you feel similarly about the pianos on the repeat visit.
It sounds like all the pianos under consideration would be very excellent options, so the decision will boil down to your preferences, your budget and space constraints, and the prices you are quoted.

I missed that you were also considering an Estonia L168. Everything I said above also applies here too. And it's also been my experience that the dealer will give you a better deal on an Estonia than a Yamaha. I don't know why that is.

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The C2X Chrome is probably the best looking CX IMO. I really love the silver hardware and plate.

Well just got back from Classic Pianos in Portland!

A few takeaways:

• The trade-up value is not a huge factor, as far as going to a different dealer than the one I bought my upright. At worse, Classic Pianos would give me $8,500 vs $10K for the full trade-up if I went with Portland Piano Company. $1.5K is not enough to pick a piano that is not my top choice. But as I start looking at higher value pianos, the sales person was willing to knock off the full value for the trade-in. At this point, the value of the trade-up going to my old dealer seems a bit of a wash, and at the end of the day, your negotiating ability will take that into consideration and the actual trade-in value they are mentally calculating is hidden to us.
• The 5'7" to 5'8" range of pianos I looked at, simply couldn't compete with the GX-2 (5'11") for me. This ranged from used Yamaha C2's to brand new Yamaha C2X all the way to very expensive Schimmel's.
• My hunch, with regard to final out-the-door price for a new Yamaha, proved to be correct. I'd be paying $6k-$7k more than the Kawai GX-2 for the C2X, a piano I like less than the GX-2.
• There were no Estonia 168's for me to try again, but luckily I've tried them recently... I remember not liking the Estonia's much until I tried a 190 or larger. But best price they could give me (if they ordered one) would be about $2k higher than the C2X... so $8K more than the GX-2... again, for a piano I'd probably like less.
• The best pianos in my price range (within $2K price of the GX-2 after trade-in) were larger pianos... A used Yamaha C3 in fantastic condition and a Schimmel 15-year-old piano that they were still working on. Both were 6'1"... a little bigger than I want, and hard to say if I would like them as much as the GX-2.

It was definitely a good idea for me to go, as I am much more comfortable about choosing the GX-2 if I go that way. The only thing I might consider is to wait for now, and take a little more time to evaluate pianos. But if I decide to buy one now, it'll almost definitely be the GX-2.

I appreciate all the comments!

80K, awesome!! Having more info is always the best way to go! You still have some deciding to do, but it sounds like you'll be in a really good position now.

P.S. c2xchrome, thanks for those photos, it's cool to see the chrome version!