This piano is for sale BTW - I am currently asking $1,800 if anyone is interested. Otherwise feel free to check out my piano tuning and lessons if you are in southwest Michigan somewhere near Kalamazoo / Portage area - danforbesmusic.net for bookings
Correct, but you often have to pay to get it moved to your place. Plus, if it turns out to be a "PSO" (Piano-shaped-object), you'll be paying again at some point for a trip to the dump.
I have bought quite a few second hand pianos over the years. (The wife now has a rule that I can only own two at any time but I’m having trouble counting .🤷♂️) Anyway, I’ve found that paying an experienced tuner/technician to appraise a piano before purchase is a worthwhile investment. And free pianos are often overpriced!
@@Sudulicious Yeah but, it will never be the same as a real piano, i always said to myself i want to learn to play a piano, but what i found out in reality, was that i enjoy more to feel its vibration and that analogic sound a real piano produces. The way it vibrates in the wall and windows, the strenght of the sound that goes all over your body and the list goes on. I couldn't find any of these things on a digital piano and that made me uninterested in learning it. So i guess it really depends heavily on what you want to achieve. With my classical guitars, if i can't get the exact sound i want or if i'm not able to produce it, then there's no point for me to play them.
@@Seacae Definitely. I just bought a Yamaha CP88 and that's about as close as I can get without a real grand piano. Granted, to get the sound I have it's also running through like $5k worth of equipment just to mimic a piano lol So for that price you could get a secondhand grand 🤣
Thanks for sharing! This is exactly what I did before I bought mine! I got down there with a flashlight to look at the bridges closely. Unfortunately I think I found tiny cracks in it later after it was in my home, but I still love the piano. It's a practice piano for me as I'm training to be a piano technician.
You do the inspection before you buy. Like some of the other comments said. Look for rust. Check the tightness of the tuning pins. Play each note to if all work and feels good. Play the middle notes and let up on the key to hear if any sound is coming out of the bass strings. Or use your finger nail to rake along the bass notes to see if there’s sound coming from them. This is done while not playing the piano. You’re checking for seating of the bass dampers. Same for the middle of the piano. Does the dampers stop the strings from vibrating after letting the key back up. Check the bridle straps. Hammers etc. Because if you’re not careful it may cost a lot to fix the piano.
Common sense would tell you to look at the sound board and bridges. That's only one thing to check. The pin block is another and you must have a tuning hammer and know what you are doing. If a pin don't set the piano won't hold a pitch. Rust is another thing to look for around the bridges. Rust can be broken without breaking a string but the piano tuner must know how to detune before raising the pitch. I had a piano when I was a teen that sat on a closed in porch room in the summer it was hot out there and cold in the winter. Mom found a tuner that took the challenge to tune the piano and brought it up to pitch. I watched how he detuned the note before raising the pitch up a full step. He even showed me how to replace the bridle straps that were rotted. I sure miss that upright concert grand. It did sound like a concert grand. Big tall piano. The Florida humidity did the piano in. Strings broke in the middle of the night. 73
Fundamentally, I would have thought that having an instrument that will tune and stay in tune to concert pitch would be far more important than insecure bridges that buzz - if I was sold an instrument with insecure bridges, it would go straight back!!
In the past I had bought a very cheap russian upright, transportation was costier than the piano alone, also I had to pay the technician to tune it and do other tweaks...and yeah the piano doesn't hold up the tuning much long, it's a piano I wouldn't had even wanted to get for free
This piano is for sale BTW - I am currently asking $1,800 if anyone is interested. Otherwise feel free to check out my piano tuning and lessons if you are in southwest Michigan somewhere near Kalamazoo / Portage area - danforbesmusic.net for bookings
If it's free, then you're not buying it.
Correct, but you often have to pay to get it moved to your place. Plus, if it turns out to be a "PSO" (Piano-shaped-object), you'll be paying again at some point for a trip to the dump.
straight facts dawg
I think he was one of those corn site advertisement makers or something 😂
@@raymondmiller5098 pay? i find it hard to believe anybody doesnt know someone with a truck and trailer
I have bought quite a few second hand pianos over the years. (The wife now has a rule that I can only own two at any time but I’m having trouble counting .🤷♂️)
Anyway, I’ve found that paying an experienced tuner/technician to appraise a piano before purchase is a worthwhile investment.
And free pianos are often overpriced!
Exactly
Digital pianos are much better, as long as u try them and there is no damage
@@Sudulicious Yeah but, it will never be the same as a real piano, i always said to myself i want to learn to play a piano, but what i found out in reality, was that i enjoy more to feel its vibration and that analogic sound a real piano produces. The way it vibrates in the wall and windows, the strenght of the sound that goes all over your body and the list goes on.
I couldn't find any of these things on a digital piano and that made me uninterested in learning it. So i guess it really depends heavily on what you want to achieve.
With my classical guitars, if i can't get the exact sound i want or if i'm not able to produce it, then there's no point for me to play them.
@@Seacae Definitely. I just bought a Yamaha CP88 and that's about as close as I can get without a real grand piano. Granted, to get the sound I have it's also running through like $5k worth of equipment just to mimic a piano lol
So for that price you could get a secondhand grand 🤣
I envy on where you live hehehehe
Thanks for the info! ❤
As a piano technician, I endorse this!
Thanks for sharing! This is exactly what I did before I bought mine! I got down there with a flashlight to look at the bridges closely. Unfortunately I think I found tiny cracks in it later after it was in my home, but I still love the piano. It's a practice piano for me as I'm training to be a piano technician.
Superglue, clamps a hope and maybe a prayer.
(not a piano repairman, dont take my advice.)
You do the inspection before you buy.
Like some of the other comments said. Look for rust. Check the tightness of the tuning pins. Play each note to if all work and feels good.
Play the middle notes and let up on the key to hear if any sound is coming out of the bass strings. Or use your finger nail to rake along the bass notes to see if there’s sound coming from them. This is done while not playing the piano.
You’re checking for seating of the bass dampers.
Same for the middle of the piano. Does the dampers stop the strings from vibrating after letting the key back up.
Check the bridle straps. Hammers etc.
Because if you’re not careful it may cost a lot to fix the piano.
Thanks for the advice. It would be helpful that you show the defect that you are pointing out. For the inexperienced eye it won’t make a difference.
My piano tuner told me that my Hofmann piano's base board is bent and that they cant tune the piano. Sad but true. I will play it till its kaput
Thanks, this was helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
Yeah. Buying a piano for free is really risky. You might have been paid to take it away...
Thanks!!!
Helpful, indeed - thank you! (Too bad you have to deal with the trolls, who clearly have nothing better to do with their time.)
Thankyou .
Common sense would tell you to look at the sound board and bridges. That's only one thing to check. The pin block is another and you must have a tuning hammer and know what you are doing. If a pin don't set the piano won't hold a pitch. Rust is another thing to look for around the bridges. Rust can be broken without breaking a string but the piano tuner must know how to detune before raising the pitch. I had a piano when I was a teen that sat on a closed in porch room in the summer it was hot out there and cold in the winter. Mom found a tuner that took the challenge to tune the piano and brought it up to pitch. I watched how he detuned the note before raising the pitch up a full step. He even showed me how to replace the bridle straps that were rotted. I sure miss that upright concert grand. It did sound like a concert grand. Big tall piano. The Florida humidity did the piano in. Strings broke in the middle of the night. 73
I just released 2 new videos today talking about most of the challenges you mention .. I’m trying to break this stuff into bite size pieces…
when free= you haul it away. without charging the owner. who doesn't want it
Fundamentally, I would have thought that having an instrument that will tune and stay in tune to concert pitch would be far more important than insecure bridges that buzz - if I was sold an instrument with insecure bridges, it would go straight back!!
Is this just for upright pianos?
No…Grand pianos have bridges too, which are exposed by opening the lid.
I would love to buy a piano for free? Where can I get one??!!??
Craigslist. People give them away. Some will even help you move it.
Facebook is a good place to start. Picked up a free Yamaha p22. I’ve also picked up a dirt cheap U1 for $500.
facebook marketplace has tons of free pianos. depending where you live but in my city right now i see 4 and even more in neighboring towns or cities.
what if it is a crack, what is the danger ?
The bridge can completely split out and the bridge pins fall out and no longer support the tension of the string creating unstable pitch
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
Buy a 🎹 for 🆓
🤦🏿♂️ 🤦🏿♂️ 🤦🏿♂️
"DO NOT BUY A PIANO EVEN FOR FREE....." - what the heck does that mean? Complete gibberish!
Everything has a hidden cost. It costs time or money to move something.
In the past I had bought a very cheap russian upright, transportation was costier than the piano alone, also I had to pay the technician to tune it and do other tweaks...and yeah the piano doesn't hold up the tuning much long, it's a piano I wouldn't had even wanted to get for free
Hey that's the same one I have!