Piano Forum

Topic: Refurbishing a Howard and other questions  (Read 1648 times)

Offline Piano Again

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Refurbishing a Howard and other questions
on: March 28, 2005, 11:04:21 PM
Hello. This is my first post here, and it's a long one. I'm an amateur pianist (although semipro cellist, so a lot of musical experience).  Last year, I started playing again more seriously, although I haven't made the plunge into lessons. I have two pianos. One is a Baldwin studio that's about 12 years old and hasn't been played very much. I bought it new, and it's in good condition and has a rather sweet tone. I don't play it much because it's in the living room and I have no privacy there! (Even though it's just hubby and me.) The other piano is an old Howard baby grand that a friend gave me. It's probably about 80 years old or so and in surprisingly good shape, considering that it has been sorely neglected for the last 30 years or so. I have been playing that one a lot because I had it moved into a practice studio we built in the basement garage of our house. I can go down there and shut the door and my playing won't bother anyone. I had it tuned, and everything works, more or less, but the piano isn't very enjoyable to play in and of itself - it's clangy and bright, with a dull bass and a tinkly high register. Anyone: if it were you, would you have this piano refurbished in some way (maybe reconditioned) and maybe sell the other one? Or would you get rid of the Howard and move the studio down to the basement? Or neither? I'm not quite committed enough to spend a lot of money on a better piano right now. Also, I'm not 100% sure that I'd want to put a fine piano at ground level, although it does seem dry and fairly climate-controlled down there. The room is actually mostly at ground level, with a couple of windows. Any opinions? Thanks.