I need some down to earth advice about piano playing and purchasing. I had some lessons as a kid, and I learned to play in a very basic fashion (learning a song by reading sheet music and memorizing it, until I could play it well by heart). At the time I had an old 2nd hand keyboard that I got for peanuts, which was a brilliant purchase as a teenager.
I absolutely loved playing that keyboard, even though it was frustrating learning songs. I want to learn how to play more naturally (Either by playing by ear, or learning how to read music and play on-the-fly). I love the sound of an acoustic piano, but I'm not sure how painful it would be to buy, transport and maintain a good quality 2nd hand (of course) piano. So I was looking into digital pianos, and boy are those expensive! But they sound beautiful (to my untrained ear).
So my considerations so far:
1) Digital vs Acoustic vs Electronic - How much should I spend on a 2nd hand piano, and should I go for digital, acoustic or a cheaper keyboard? I do want the variable note on a keyboard ( pressing key harder makes it louder, not sure what that's called), but I don't need the variable feel because I've never played on a normal keyboard so I don't know what I'm missing out on. :) I consider the sustain pedal an absolute must. Can I get this on a good quality Keyboard?
2) Price vs quality - I don't want to buy an expensive item, and find I lose interest in a few months to a year. That's what happened to my previous keyboard - collected dust after a year or so of playing! So I don't want to spend a ton of money (or I'll buy something that I can resell for a decent price). However I don't want to go super-cheap, and not enjoy the keyboard/piano enough to be inspired to play.
3) Space - I currently have a spare bedroom to put this in, but we're renting and looking to move into a smaller place since it's far to big for us. A smaller keyboard would be easier to move around.
4) Maintenance - Acoustic piano requires maintenance/tuning that I should be able to do myself since I have a good ear, will just need to learn how. Not sure what option there is for fixing a digital piano that's bit the dust?
What is the most mustachian piano options?
Are there any decent electronic keyboards with a good sound?