free piano - take it or leave it?

[arnaud]

I can get a free piano, but it's extremely out of tune. It's an older Belgian piano (1930?), steel frame, had no tuning for a long time. So, hitting one key results in playing a chord. Is this still tunable or should I leave it? Mechanism seems ok on first sight.

[keys60]

How much hard earned are you prepared to dump into it? Are you willing to pay a piano tech to check it out for you?

[arnaud]

If I take it and before I have it tuned, I will for shure ask a tech to look it over and see if restoring is an issue. Just wondered if being so much out of tune is a sign that this instrument needs more than tuning, that it even might be a mission impossible. Restoring shouldn't cost more than the value of the instrument, wich ain't that much (I guess). Unless someone can proof me wrong: P. de Heug - Charleroi. Can't find the fabrication date, but must be something between 1892 and 1930.

[lhorwinkle]

Have a tech examine it first. If it's in bad shape, it might not even be worth the cost of moving it!

Restoring is expensive, generally in the thousands of dollars.
Bad strings ... several thousand dollars.
Bad pin block ... and the piano is junk/firewood.

[ch101]

If you are planning to get the piano for long term use, leave it. It might have problems that you do not know about, or it might not respond as good as you might think. Go buy yourself a reliable and trustworthy piano.

[keys60]

Many pianos for "free" means the person getting rid of it had it moved for free.
You would have to have a tech go over it first before deciding to take it. It doesn't sound too promising though. Usually (not always) you get what you pay for and free means you didn't get anything. Then of course there is always that "one stroke of luck".......

[silverwoodpianos]

all good comments....
There is never a free piano…always moving, tuning, repairs. More importantly to consider is the cost of inspection for present condition, and viability as a good musical instrument, prior to accepting the instrument.

[Bob]

Haha... I saw "It hasn't been tuned in a long time."  And thought "It's not really free."  And then I saw the post above.  *Bob is amused.*  A musical moneypit, if you're dumb enough to keep throwing money at over and over AND if it's a bad instrument.


It might be a worthwhile situation if you wanted experiment with piano tuning.   And if they would move the piano for you.  Then you do whatever you want to play around with piano tuning.  Eventually take the piano apart and dispose of "the body" in pieces that way.  Although I would imagine....  The main metal frame of the piano would still be a royal pain to move anyway -- Right? 

[keys60]

Sometimes a person can score a free piano and everything works, maybe makes a few creaks and clicks, doesn't hold a great tune but can still have fun with it if that's all your looking to get out of it.
If you're going to take lessons and seriously want a reliable instrument to practice on, I'd keep looking. If you're looking for something that works ok, you won't get too frustrated everytime an action part breaks, just want to set your drinks on it in your man cave and belt out a few tunes with the fellas, sometimes an old clunker works out. Make sure those fellas help you move it in AND out of the house and you can pay for the case of brewskies.

One more thing....re: terribly out of tune, that's usually a sign of neglect right there.

[jimbo320]

I agree with Keys,
If it's badly out of tune what else was neglected?