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Piano Showroom Evaluation Checklist

A printable checklist of what to bring, what to play, what to listen and feel for, and what to ask before you commit to a grand or upright piano meant to last for decades.

Download the checklist (.txt)

Reviewed for 2026, updated September 8, 2026.

Specification sheets describe a piano; only an hour at the keyboard tells you whether it is the right one. This checklist gathers the things a careful buyer should do, listen for, feel for and ask about during a showroom visit, in the order our guide to buying a high-end grand or upright piano recommends: preparing before you go, playing the same music on every candidate, judging tone across the registers, judging the action and the pedals, looking inside a used or restored instrument, and getting the terms in writing. Every line is something you can hear, feel, measure or have confirmed on paper rather than take on trust.

Print it and take it with you, and use one copy per instrument so your notes do not blur together by the third piano. Before the visit, run your room through the Grand Piano Room Fit Calculator in our Tools section so you already know which lengths are realistic, and after the visit the Piano Ownership Cost Calculator turns the quoted price and your technician's rates into a yearly figure. For the reasoning behind each line, our articles on choosing between a grand and an upright, on the role of regular voicing and regulation, and on hand-built versus factory pianos go into the detail. If you record what you find on our Piano Candidate Comparison Worksheet, the final decision becomes a matter of reading your own notes.

  • Decide before you go whether a grand or an upright suits the repertoire, the player and the room, so you compare like with like
  • Bring three pieces you know well: something slow and exposed, something fast with repeated notes, and something that uses the full range of the keyboard
  • Ask for a quiet room, or the quietest hour of the day, and for the lid position you will actually use at home
  • Play the same passages on every candidate in the same order so the comparison is fair
  • Listen across the registers for evenness of tone as you move from bass to treble, and note any register that jumps out or falls away
  • Hold single notes and chords and listen to how the sustain decays; a graceful, even decay is a mark of a well-made instrument
  • Play as softly as you can and confirm that every note still speaks; a pianissimo that drops notes points to regulation that needs attention
  • Play at full volume and listen for harshness, buzzing or rattling from the case, the lid or the music desk
  • Test fast repeated notes on a single key to feel how quickly the action resets; in a grand this is where the repetition lever earns its keep
  • Play a slow chromatic scale with a relaxed arm and feel for keys that are heavier, lighter or noisier than their neighbors
  • Check the pedals: the damper pedal should lift cleanly without a thump, the soft pedal should change the tone rather than only the volume, and the middle pedal should do what the maker says it does
  • Ask whether the piano has been regulated and voiced in the showroom or is still in its factory state, and what preparation is included before delivery
  • Ask who tunes and regulates the dealer's floor instruments and whether that technician can service the piano in your home
  • For any used, restored or privately sold piano, arrange an independent technician's inspection of the pinblock, soundboard, bridges, hammers and action before money changes hands
  • Look inside: check the soundboard for cracks and loss of crown, the bridges for splits, and the hammers for deep grooves or flattened striking points
  • Ask for the piano's history in writing: date of manufacture, prior owners, any rebuilding or replacement of hammers, strings or pinblock, and the service record
  • Ask what the warranty covers, for how long, and whether it transfers to a second owner
  • Get the full price in writing, including bench, delivery, stairs, setup and the first in-home tuning, rather than the piano price alone
  • Ask whether a trial period or exchange policy applies and what conditions attach to it
  • Measure the delivery route at home before you sign: door widths, stair turns, hallway corners and the floor the piano will stand on
  • Confirm the room can hold a steady relative humidity through the year, and ask the dealer whether a humidity control system is advisable for your climate
  • Make more than one visit, at different times of day, and sit with your notes before deciding; a fine piano rewards the extra week
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