Piano damage during moving...

[phillippark90]

Hello all,
     I am regretful of the circumstances of my first post. I bought a used piano today (via Craigslist): a $400 Kohler and Campell upright. The only issue the piano seemed to have before purchasing was a single sticky key.
     While transporting the piano, one of the cables used to strap it to my pick up bed snapped, and the piano fell from an upright position onto the rim of the bed (the back of the piano making contact with it).
     After getting the piano into my home: it was (relatively) still in tune. Some problems quickly became apparent:

-One key is harder to depress compared to the others
-One key will not produce sound unless struck
-The lowest 3 bass notes became very out of tune
-The timbre of the center-most keys seems to make a faint metallic noise when struck (it's tolerable, but only noticeable if listening closely)


Of course, I will be calling a technician first thing in the morning, but my anxiety got the better of me and I am posting in this in the hopes that someone with experience might be able to know what is going on.

As well as this, as much as I'd like to avoid "how much will it cost" type questions, I couldn't find any answers on google as to what how much repairs for isolated, abnormally stiff keys, would run (or at least an example of one case).

[keys60]

The hard to depress key sounds like a hammer butt jack is stuck in the wrong position due to being jostled or bounced. No big deal. A tech can free it up. The detuning is normal. We're talking thousands of lbs. of pressure on that frame that just got twisted around. It doesn't have to move much to sound out of tune. You may actually have to tune a few times to re stabilize the piano. Very normal. To me, it sounds like your lucky. Everything is in tact but needs to be readjusted. Not sure I understand "will not produce sound unless struck". A tech should always be called in after a move. Congrats on you purchase. Enjoy.

[phillippark90]

Thank you for your reply. I can understand why people could be standoffish about these kinds of posts, so I really appreciate the response.

To clarify: one of the keys cannot produce a tone when pressed lightly. I can only get a sound when playing loudly (~forte). Will be calling a tech soon!

[keys60]

Sometimes the hammers shift when a piano is moved and either miss a string or 2 and even nick the strings of the note next to it. If that's the case, the action screws are loose and need to be tightened.

Could be the jack is escaping the hammer butt prematurely and doesn't have the momentum to reach the strings when depressed lightly.

Your tech can either tighten things up and adjust or fix what's not working properly or do a partial or whole regulation which is in the hundreds, but she'll play nice. I know this wasn't a very expensive piano to start out with, but all pianos need a regulation (clean, tighten, adjust and repair the entire action with its existing parts) at some point or another.

This procedure is highly overlooked by most piano owners. Most like to just fix as we go along and its a never ending battle.

All the best.