| OT, but speaking of pianos.
Our piano is a very old upright. It once sounded very good, but over the years, it has begun to beak down. The last repair estimate we got was last year to the tune of $1,900. O am not really sure it is worth it. I'd guess it would be worth around $2500-3,000 restored. This winter, it has finally gotten out of tune to the point you can't play it anymore. (Or at least don't want to)
So, on a Valentines Day whim, I stopped by a local shop to see what I could do on a tight budget so we have a piano in the house. I love to hear my wife play, and I use it to help think through chords, progressions, etc.
Anyway, I played a half dozen or so electronic pianos in varying price ranges. I ended up with a Yamaha DGX500. I bought the whole rig including the matching bench for less than $700 and the thing sounds VERY VERY good.
It's a full 88-key piano with semi-weighted keys. Sure, it has some cheesy sounds on it, but I have seen $3,000 digitals with the same cheesy sounds. The basic grand piano sound is HUGE through a decent amp and very usable through the built-in speakers. I played no piano at any price with a better piano sample than this little cheapo Yamaha.
It has a dictionary feature that names chords for you (that's worth plenty to me), recording functions and bunch of other stuff that I'll never use.
It isn't an acoustic so the action is a little more toy-like, but if you want a piano to tinker and use for fairly modest things, I highly recommend checking this one out. I am far more than happy with the buy. | 
