Can a very badly maintained piano impair performance?

[thesuperguy]

I have been practicing on an old piano that has literally started to fall apart and that has made me take a step back and wonder, does a very badly maintained piano make it more difficult to play properly? For example, I see performances on the top of the line steinway grands and they look effortless, but on my upright which I intend to completely restore in the next few days, keys are double striking, they all seem to rest at different heights, and I just feel a sense of stickiness in my keys. Not to mention some keys are striking multiple tones at once now too, will have to get that fixed as well. Just wondering if my restoration will help my practice.

[outin]

does a very badly maintained piano make it more difficult to play properly?

I would be very surprised if it didn't...

Some people seem to think that one does not need a proper instrument until one is more advanced. I think it's the opposite. When you are really good you can manage better with whatever you are given.

[andrewuk]

I cringe when I see a piano that is presumably a heap of junk being offered for sale as "suitable for beginner". It's like suggesting that you should learn to drive in a car with a semi-flat tyre and a couple of gears that don't work properly.

[Bob]

Yes.

Ditto on the "beginner" label.  That's just people cheap and very possibly scarring their kids for playing the piano.

[silverwoodpianos]

Here are some questions the OP needs to consider;

If my child was learning to read in school would it be a good idea to have educational instruction books with incorrectly spelled words, grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes.

If my child was learning to drive should they be learning on a vehicle with loose, wobbly steering, brakes that pull to one side, no turn signals, bald tires.

If the answer is no then nothing more requires discussion.

[thesuperguy]

So I'm assuming the answer is yes. I would just like to point out that I have been playing for 8-9 years so I am not a beginner. We are talking about fantasie impromptu level pieces now. Glad to know that my inability to play it to a level of perfection is not completely my fault.

[indianajo]

I've played on a lot of really old, badly out of tune, missing key top uprights in Sunday School. Most from the 1920's, forgotten brands.    Most had pedal problems due to rough moving by the deacons.    None of them had problems with double striking or more than one different key rest height, except for the missing ivory tops.  It sounds as if this piano is a refugee from a conservatory or other place where it was practiced intensively, wearing out the felt pivots and wood pieces.  Run, hide, this is horrible.  
Any random upright you pick up for $50 plus $200 moving expense, should be better than this.  The main thing to watch out for on those is that it is not a model where the glue holding the joints together on the wood parts is failing.  
For maybe $200 you can pick up a post WWII console with less than stellar tone, but adequate mechanical performance.  I find the ones from the fifties have better low volume consistency than the bargain brands from the nineties.  At this price point, speed of action has nothing to do with the price.  You can check speed of action for yourself, and get a bargain on a forgotten brand with no status on E-bay. 
Get out there and look around.  And find a friend with a truck, and spot a piano dolly you can rent.  Better pianos than this are going to the dump every day.  I've seen spinnets at Goodwill for $40 that were much better pianos than this.  One of those little 36" spinnets weighs about 150 lb and will fit in the trunk of my car on its back.  Use 2x8's to slide it on its back over the trunk lip.  (I did that with a $137 Hammond A100 organ from Salvation Army, about the same size as a spinnet).