From: edski@phx.mcd.mot.com (Ed Skinner)
Newsgroups: rec.antiques,rec.music.makers,misc.consumers
Subject: Re: How to buy a piano
Date: 17 Nov 92 21:42:23 GMT
Reply-To: edski@phx.mcd.mot.com
Organization: Motorola
Originator: edski@


     Several years ago we bought a used piano.  We read up on pianos at
the library, talked to friends with pianos, and began our search through
advertisements in the local newspapers.  We expected to spend at least one
full day each weekend for several weeks for this major purchase.
     One of the interesting "finds" was a Chickering (?) decal applied
very carefully to the front of a Kimbal baby grand.  The piano was pure
junk that had been dressed up to look like a top name instrument with a
price tag to match.
     We saw several sound-boards with cracks of various sizes.  Some of
them buzzed, some sounded like towels were stuffed inside, and some sounded
fine.  One expert said that a cracked sound board is not always bad.  "It
depends on where the crack is, and how long it is."  If the crack is at the
side and no likely to "run" across the board, and the instrument sounds Ok,
then the crack is not necessarily a bad thing.  "Depends on how much they
want."
     We also saw a couple with some sort of a stain all across the area
where the string pegs (tuning pins) were embedded into the instrument.  We avoided these.  The liquid is used to make the wood grasp the pegs harder and this is needed if the wood dries and begins to pull away and not grip the pegs sufficiently.  We were told that, in time, the pegs would loosen again.
     During our search, we contacted a piano tuner, from the Yellow Pages, one Saturday morning when I wanted some information on a particular brand.  The piano tuner gave us excellent advice and I jotted down his name.  Later, we found an old upright Steinway (great bass sound!) in a shack on the outskirts
of Goodyear, Arizona.  The house in which the piano had sat for a decade had
only a swamp cooler (squirt water on a sponge and blow air through the
sponge and into the house) rather than refrigeration and so I was very
wary about the high/low humidity and temperature cycles to which the
instrument had been subjected.  I called the piano tuner from a nearby
pay phone and we talked for a couple of minutes.  Finally, he asked me
"What's the serial number?"  I drove back to the house, copied down the
serial number, drove back to the pay phone and called him back.  "Oh,
yeah, here it is," he said, looking through his records.  "I worked on
that piano about 21 months ago.  Here's what was wrong with it then..."
We decided to skip that one.
     Three weeks and a dozen pianos later, we found a Yamaha upright in
good condition in the living room of a professor near the University.
They were asking $1600 (this was ten years ago, perhaps) and we didn't
even try haggling.  "We'll take it!"
     Today, the piano is used a couple of times a month by novices and by
accomplished pianists.  We have it tuned roughly every six months but every
now and then it needs one a little earlier.  We have not regretted the many
hours of research, driving, and looking at used pianos that we invested in
order to come up with a quality instrument for a reasonable price.
     My strongest recommendation to used piano buyers is two-fold:  First,
educate yourself by reading and by talking to experts.  And then secondly,
"let the buyer beware!"
-- 
#include <disclaimer.h>
Ed Skinner, Customer Education Services, Motorola Inc., USA(602)438-3956
Internet: edski@phx.mcd.mot.com,  UUCPnet: noao!asuvax!mcdphx!edski
Newsgroups: rec.antiques