Rud. Ibach Sohn Grand

Tony11 · Post by **Tony11** » 09 Dec 2006, 20:40

Hi, Moving house and have just been offered a 1898 Rud. Ibach Sohn baby grand piano (175 cm.) for about 600 pounds (Serial number 32874 and it's in reasonable condition.) My Daughter is about to start learning the Piano so I am definately very tempted and will almost certainly go ahead! I suppose the questons I want to ask are:
- a, I making a mistake?
- What should I do next once I have purchased it?

Thanks for your advice
Yours,
Tony (New to pianos!)

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 09 Dec 2006, 23:43

When you say "reasonable condition", does this mean the wrestpins (tuning pins) have all been tested individually? Before buying a piano of this age, it is essential to get it tested by a tuner-technician unless you want to gamble losing all the money. Remeber, unrestored grand pianos are difficult to sell, and a few hundred pounds is not an unusual bargain.

Tony11 · Post by **Tony11** » 10 Dec 2006, 09:45

Bill, Many thanks for your comments and directions

Regards

Tony

PianoGuy · Post by **PianoGuy** » 10 Dec 2006, 20:48

It's very old, and as Bill says, not such an unusual price for such a thing.

I'd go further than Bill, and pay for a good local tuner to visit and actually tune it, that way, all the tuning pins will be tested for tightness and he'll be able to tell you much about the general condition. Old German pianos (though not usually Ibachs) are notorious for cracks in their iron frames. German metallurgy was not as good as it could have been in the 1890s to the end of the 1920s.

Better still, try and find out who's been tuning it for the last few years and get him to tell you what he thinks of it.

Better still, triple your budget and buy a new Yamaha b1 upright. That'll be reliable for the next 40 years and it's as cheap as chips.