Is this piano worth obtaining? (No flood damage)

[makivka]

Hello. I'm trying to get one of my adult students some feedback about her parents' piano that's been just sitting in the garage. It's a Ludwig & Co from 1952. The moldy piano pedals are really tarnished, but the rest of the wooden paneling of the piano seems to be in good condition. What do you guys think? Here are all of the photos & one video. Should I recommend this piano to be tuned?

[essence]

I am far from an expert, but i have seen and heard much worse. the felts do not look too bad, what one can see of them.

The keys look in reasonable condition.

You do a lot by cleaning everything - microfibre cloth.

What is the harm getting a tuner/technician to take a look? Good money after bad?

I guess the question is whether it is worth restoring this one, or purchasing an already restored one? Or, depending on where the student is, purchasing a good digital?

It is possible to pick up good uprights which somebody wants to get rid of, but there is always transportation costs.

The cost of getting a tuner/technician to take a look may not be large. It would probably take more than one tuning. If the pins/soundboard needs repair, that is a different issue, but you can;t tell from photos. The individual note mechanisms look ok, if many were rotten it would be a different story.

The technician will be able to tell you quickly.

The video here goes through the action

https://www.howardpianoindustries.com/how-a-vertical-piano-action-works/

You see how many parts there are, how many felts. Different actions have different ability to adjust it.

Maybe a good idea to remove a few of the individual actions, and examine closely how worn all the felts are. Replacing all the felts is a job - may be better to replace all the action.

[aaronsf]

Chances are good that this old upright is essentially worthless.  Even if you got it for free, you would still have to pay for moving and then pay a technician to refurbish it (which wouldn't be cheap...if you could even find a technician willing to do it).  You would be better off putting your money into a Kawai or Yamaha upright that is no more than 20-25 years old.  It would probably cost you less in the long run and be a much, much superior instrument.