Would this ring alarm bells to you?

[Outofpractice]

Hello everyone

Thank you all for your help and advice last time I posted. I am still looking for a piano - basically a decent family workhorse which won't give us any problems and will be enjoyable to play (I used to play well and hope I might do again one day, with some practice.....).

Anyway. I went to see a piano at the weekend. It's a Zimmerman upright, no idea of age - the case is relatively modern so I am guessing about 25 years old. I lifted the lid but couldn't see any serial number, there were numbers stamped onto the visible wooden parts (the hammers?) but I am guessing these were tuner's marks rather than a serial number.

The piano has been tuned in the last year and all the notes sounded well when played firmly. However, I found that when playing more gently, some of the notes were not sounding. The other potential problem was that I played up and down the piano with the sustaining pedal down and again found that some notes did not sound - however, when I went back to play them again they did sound.

It is possible that these problems were more due to lack of strength in my fingers than any fault with the piano but would this ring alarm bells for you?

Any opinions would be very gratefully received, thank you.

[Colin Nicholson]

The piano will probably need to regulated - this is the adjustment of the mechanism - not tuning, and a separate job. Symptoms of notes not playing or maybe playing once, then not able to repeat the note immediately just after, and particularly when sustain pedal is pressed, this makes it worse - then the lower section of the mechanism - levers & jacks may need to be re-pinned. The piano mechanism has therefore seized up in places - usually due to damp...

[Outofpractice]

Thanks so much Colin. Having google-ed the problem, it sounds like a fairly common issue, would it be complex/expensive to get fixed do you think?

[Colin Nicholson]

If just the odd lever flange/ jack flange needs re-pinning, then not an expensive job. I usually charge by the hour - about £45, then just a little extra for pins. However if you decided to have the whole undercarriage lever mech. section re-pinned, possibly around £100 - £150 - but it depends also on the hammer flanges & damper movement - if the whole lot needs doing, then probably in region of £300.
Also disconnecting the bridle tapes, depending on their condition, some may break & should b renewed. Where do you live?

Yes, quite a complex job and should only be done by a piano tech guy. Pins start from about 1.27mm in diameter - ranging up to 1.50mm, so the old pins need to be extracted using a special tool, measured with micrometers (or digital vernier calipers), then each flange is reamed out to take the next size pin. Best call someone out for a price.

There is another method by injecting a special solution into the original pin area with a syringe - quicker, but the mech. still needs to be stripped down. I prefer to re-pin using traditional methods.

Also, on some Zimmerman pianos, the flanges are nylon bushings, instead of the traditional wooden flanges with red bushing cloth, and these sometimes swell in heated conditions - e.g. rest homes. I had to completely repin a mech. once because of it.

[Outofpractice]

Ooh that doesn't sound pretty. I didn't love the piano so am probably not worth taking on a big job like that. I'll certainly get a good local piano technician to have a look if I do decide to make an offer on it.

Thanks so much for your advice.