Player Pianos

[barfle]

Come to find out that the player piano my folks own is going to be given to me, apparently as soon as they get around to shipping it.

I'm certain it hasn't been tuned since it was purchased, and shipping it to a climate with drastic humidity changes would render such an exercise meaningless. It is also in dire need of some TLC, but at least we'll have an instrument in the house if I ever get enough of a life to actually try to learn to play the thing.

It has a motor, by the way, and a lever you can pull to make a honky-tonk sound by resting some little metal paddles on the strings.

Hey, at least we'll have SOMETHING in the living room!

[piqaboo]

OT says there are dehumidifier things you can put in the piano, to help with seasonal changes.
However, do you run heat in winter and A/C in summer? That keeps humidity fairly stable, I'd think.

It turns out the tuning cost is not outrageous (tho we wont indulge in 4x yearly, considering we only have 1.5 seasons a year and the humidity only changes for 2 weeks each summer).

[barfle]

I was flabbergasted by the drastic changes in humidity here. In the winter, it's much, much dryer than I ever experienced it in California, even with Santa Ana winds. It's because the moisture freezes out of the air. Then in the summer, it's an ongoing fight with mildew and mold.

I remember moving my couch away from the wall and finding the WALL was moldy. Eeeeew! I have no idea what it might have been feeding on, since it was just painted wallboard, but I've learned to be more careful.

Last fall we added a humidifier to our HVAC equipment, and it made the winter much more comfortable. We also got a new furnace and AC, so I'll see how the new AC extracts the mugginess during the summer.

You may have heard or stories about doors not closing half the year and furniture splitting. They are true.

[piqaboo]

Thats funny. We have a door in our house that sticks lightly closed at ~ 3 mm overlap at night, but needs to be nearly to latched to stick closed during the day. Go figure!

I lived in Miami. I never had problem with mold, but my co-worker had recurrent problems in her closet. Over the course of a year, every thing she'd brought with her grew and had to be discarded. What an interesting excuse to go shopping.....

[barfle]

Originally posted by piqaboo:
I lived in Miami.

Then you understand about the mugginess, but perhaps not about the dryness in the winter.

[OperaTenor]

Hi Barfle,

See what you can find out about the player you're getting, if you would. All I'll need is the brand and serial number, and I can get you more information if you want.

The gadget used to control humidity is called a "Damp-Chaser". Most any piano tuner in your area will stock them to sell if your area is notorious for hunidity. Dryness isn't of much concern, but high humidity, and especially changes in humidity are what you want to most avoid.

I recently stumbled onto an all-piano bulletin board. These people are a bunch of rabid piano enthusiasts, and they include everyone from performers to technicians. They also happen to use the same software as the BBB(UBB classic), so the format is very familiar. So far, I'm getting a lot of reading in. A lot of them have posted photos of their pianos, and there are some beautiful instruments out there.

Perhaps someday I can be a PW there. too.

Oops, wrong thread.....

[barfle]

I'm not expecting to be able to get much of that for about another month or so, since my folks are on the road (they are leaving Vahjinyah today).

But once I get word they're back home, I'll ask them for some details, on the idea that I will be able to look up pertinent information about the care and feeding of the instrument (which will be true).

[BigJon@Work]

Anybody ever used an online piano appraisal service? We have a family heirloom upright piano that came out of an old theater. It's from the era when the theaters hired a local pianist to play along with the silent movies. We are reluctant to get rid of it, but nobody in the family has the room or a need for it right now either. We want to use http://www.pianoappraisal.com/ to see if it is worth hiring a professional appraiser.

It was refinished with a faux wood-grain and new key covers at some point in its life. The action is still good and all the keys still work. Nothing is loose inside.

<small>[ 04-17-2006, 06:04 PM: Message edited by: BigJon@Work ]</small>

[piqaboo]

"faux" wood grain? What's that piano actually made of, that it needed faux wood finish?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Originally posted by piqaboo:
"faux" wood grain? What's that piano actually made of, that it needed faux wood finish?

Petrified foxes.

[BigJon@Work]

Since you didn't include a smiley, I guess I'll esplain. It's an opaque finish that is dragged to raise the surface to resemble wood grain. The dragging causes the finish to appear to be two different colors too, like wood grain. It was done extensively to antique furniture in the 50s, 60s and into the 70s and was considered the height of fashion for making worn-out old pieces look "good" again . . . to the ruination of any collector value today.

Our piano's veneer was in pretty poor shape, so I guess the easy choice at the time was to cover it over rather than redo the veneer.

[piqaboo]

Cool, now you wont feel guilty when you paint it daffodil yellow to match the house...
if you dont succeed in selling it.

[OperaTenor]

Ah, "faux wood finish" = paint.

Rather than hire an appraiser, the best bet is to have a technician look it over and assess its condition as an instrument. A piano is a musical instrument first and foremost, and the only way to obtain an accurate assessment of its value is to physically ascertain its condition as an instrument, and that can only be done honestly by a qualified technician. If you've had the piano tuned regularly, the tuner ought to be able to give you a pretty fair appraisal of its worth, and he/she probably won't even charge you. If you haven't kept it tuned, tsk, tsk tsk!

If you can give me the brand and serial number, I can tell you what year it was made and perhaps estimate its initial quality. The brand will be cast into the upper right of the cast iron plate under the lid, and the serial number will be a 4-6 digit number stamped into the wood in the vicintiy of the tuning pins, usually toward the right side of the piano. Another factor significantly affecting its value, even as a rebuilding candidate, is if the plate covers the area of the tuning pins, aka the pinblock.

It's also helpful to know the maintenance history of the piano. Has it been regularly tuned? Has it ever been reconditioned/restrung/rebuilt?

If you need to find a qualified tech in your area, this is the national guild, and they have a locator:

Piano Technician's Guild

All of that being said, here's some harsh reality in considering selling it, especially since it's been painted: It's sole value is its worth as an instrument, and even if it's a freshly rebuilt piano, it might be worth ~$1,500 tops(as a point of reference, these days it runs ~$3,000 to properly rebuild an upright, and that doesn't include refinishing). If it's in poor condition as an instrument, unless it's an exceptional brand(and even then it doesn't matter much), it won't be worth paying someone to haul it away. Painted-over pianos have a stigma attached to them - it's worse than a weathered, beaten, crackled original finish.

<small>[ 04-17-2006, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: OperaTenor ]</small>

[BigJon@Work]

We're hoping the historical society from the town the theater was in takes it. We just want to know how much to write off.

[OperaTenor]

Originally posted by BigJon@Work:
We're hoping the historical society from the town the theater was in takes it. We just want to know how much to write off.

Once again, that all depends on its condition as an instrument. Can you tell me any of the things I asked about in my previous post? That would help me valuate it somewhat.

[BigJon@Work]

Not from work, I can't. It is at my sister's house, so she would need to gather the info. I'll email her.

<small>[ 04-18-2006, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: BigJon@Work ]</small>