Piano Forum

Topic: Wheelock upright  (Read 3442 times)

Offline wufnu

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Wheelock upright
on: June 26, 2005, 01:29:56 AM
Hello there!  I'm sure you guys hate these threads, but I'm kinda lost. 

I was given a Wheelock upright piano today, it's in pretty rough shape.  Guy was moving out, piano was in the house when he bought it, gave it away and I picked it up.  I was wondering if you could give me a little history on the Wheelock pianos by reputation, and perhaps if you have a copy of that certain book at home maybe when it was made.  If it goes under Aeolian serial numbers, it would have been made in 1911, but I don't know if their numbers are different with Wheelock? 

Here's what I know about it: Made by Wheelock (which I've learned was part of the Aeolian Corp or something like that) in New York (soundboard has a 33 1/2 on the left side).  Serial number 27854, Style 111 P. 

As I said, I'm not really interested in reselling it or having it look very nice, I just want something to play.  Despite being slightly out of tune and being treated (apparently) fairly roughly, it still sounds very nice to my un-pianotuned ear. 

The hammers look ok, although a couple are malfunctioning and will need fixing.  There are these little straps that pull the hammers back when the key is released and many of these are so old they rotted and broke and need replacing.  It could use some tuning and maybe some fiddling with by someone that knows what they're doing.  How much do you think this would cost?  How much if I tuned it myself?  How hard is it to tune a piano?  I would mention that I have what you would call a musical ear, I can tell differences in pitch very well and have been tuning my guitars for over a decade =/  Curious about the strings, there are three.  Are they all the same note or are they making a three note chord?  All the keys mechanics are working properly and I believe all the foot pedals are working. 

It just needs a little tlc for the mechanical bits, most of it is in fine working order.  Someone tried to paint it, I believe my mom said that it used to be popular to have it painted in a way to make it look old.  To my eyes it looks like they used too little paint and did it very poorly.  Apparently this was done on purpose, now it is ugly and need refinishing which I will probably do myself (the external wood only). 

Thanks for any help you can give me,

Justin