Posted: 8/26/2008 5:47:29 AM EDT
| I want a small piano for my daughter. I saw a bunch for free on Craigs list. I'm going to go look at one this afternoon. The thing is, the guy said he just took it out of his house on the 20th and put it outside under a tarp. He said it was last tuned a year ago. Is the thing trashed? |
|
No need to hire a piano mover. You will most likely pay more than the value of the piano to have it moved. If it is an upright piano, it shouldn't be too heavy and will most likely have wheels. Get a few guys and a pickup truck. Load it into the back and strap it down securely. |
|
Actually, they're a lot heavier than they look, even a small spinet. I'd recommend getting one of those 4 wheel moving dollies from harbor freight if you don't have one. They're only about $10 and it'll pay for itself if you move a piano one time. I was sure glad I had one. |
I'm going to see a spinet tomorrow afternoon. It's in a studio of a music instructor. He purchased a larger piano. The one I went to see today was scary looking. The guy had taken the top and front off to make it lighter to move outside. The keys were all miscolored and chipped. I bet the keys were ivory. I wonder if they are big enough to make knife handles out of? Someone else can. |
|
I got one from Craig's list for $150 yesterday. It is a spinet made by Jacob Doll and Sons. My brother and I moved it from the auction house (the guy flipped the piano, but it had to be out by yesterday). My wife, neighbor and I got it out of the back of the pickup and into the house. I'll post pictures later. I have a tuner/repairman coming next Friday. What's the avg. price for a tuning? I figure it'll have more repares on top of that price. |
Not sure on what it cost to tune a piano. You can always get a tuner from a local music shop. With the tuner along with a ratchet and a few hours, you will have her tuned up and ready to play. |
There is such a beast? I'm off to google. I always thought the tuner guys just had an ear for it. Man do I have to learn a lot about music/pianos. |
+1 on letting the piano acclimate to the new surroundings. The varying humidity causes the wood to expand and contract making the tuning fluctuate.
A standard guitar tuner will work, a decent one will run about $20 or so. I prefer a digital readout. As long as you can read the tuner and turn the wrench or ratchet, you are good to go.  |
I put it in the house yesterday. The tuner will be there next Friday. Is that enough? How do the digital tuners work? Do they know each of the notes? BTW: I learned from my daughter only yesterday that there is more than on "C". She also showed me that if you start at the far left key it's "A". If you march your fingers over every key from left to right you can say "ABCDEFG" and repeat. Cool. Maybe I'll start to learn piano. |
|
I would've put the money for the digital tuner toward having it professionally tuned. Tuning a piano is not a five-minute job, especially after moving it to a new location. You've got 88 keys, and many have three strings to tune. Good luck! I value my time more than the $60 I pay to have it done. |
No kidding. I looked under the hood today. There are a bajilllion wires in there. Each hammer touches 3 strings. No thanks. A couple of the keys hang up. I hope thats not pshyco expensive to fix. Looks like the hammers may be rubbing the one next to it. |
|
It shouldn't be that bad to fix it. I've had to have hammers replaced during a tune and it only added 15 bucks or so per hammer. Before you pay somebody to do that, check to see if you can carefully bend the hammers back where they're supposed to be. There's no telling what all the piano has been through. You can probably fix many of your stuck hammers by just moving stuff around and maybe tightening some stuff here and there. Get it as mechanically sound as you can yourself before calling the tuner. Try to figure out what it may need and tell the guy so he can have parts with him to save the cost of another trip. |
|
So, I waited 2 weeks and had the guy come and tune it. He was pretty impressed with the condition and finish of the spinet. He tuned it, clamped/glued three of the keys. Checked out the serial number - it is a Jacob Doll & Sons from 1938. All wood internals. The tension on the wires was good. Probibly hasn't been tuned in 20+ years, and probibly not tuned much before that. Everything looked great inside. He was surprised that I got it for $150 - and more surprised that I bought it out from under him. He watches Craig's List for really nice pianos. All said and done it cost $185 for this tuning. He recommended one more visit in 6 months, then annual tune every year for $65. Here are pics from the auction house where I picked it up:  
|
|
Not sure what exactly you mean by "echo-y". The bass strings naturally have a wider range of movement, and you may be hearing them vibrating up against something on the harp. That could make a sort of reverberating sound. It could also be the strings vibrating against the hammers, and you may be able to do some tweaking on how the dampers sit at rest to fix that. |