Wet Piano

[Liquid Egg Rob]

Hi Guys,

I am currently in the process of building a recording studio with a few friends, we recently were kindly donated a piano from a friend but unfortunately it got wet during the delivery. It was delivered in an open back truck in the rain, and the cabinet casing had all been removed to make it lighter for the delivery. We tried our best to dry it off but now about 40% of the keys are affected with about 30% of those keys not returning to key height after being played. Do you think it could be worth being restored or is pretty much a financial write off? We didn't really pay anything for it (just a bottle of rum for the gesture) but its a nice piano, has a really nice tone, it seems a shame to throw it...

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

P.S. The make is 'Berry of London' if that means anything to anyone?

Thanks, Rob.

[Colin Nicholson]

The piano name 'Berry' is heard of, but it wouldn't have made any difference even it was a Steinway - any piano keyboard subject to rainfall or water will suffer. I would let it dry out for a few days and some of the keys might work again - if not, you need to call a tuner out and ease the keys - but when they have fully dried out.

[Johnkie]

Oh dear Rob That wasn't a very bright move (!) on your part. From what you say I assume that you left the action (inner workings) and keys in place, and just removed the fall and top and bottom panels. It may well be a case of an expensive repair .....and consideration as to whether it would be worth having it done. Without examining it, it would be impossible to tell the full extent of the damage. Your only option is to find a local tuner to have a look at it for you. It might be tight centres throughout the action as well as swollen keys and bushings ....and the steel of the strings wont be happy bunnies either .... but if you are very lucky (unlikely) easing the key bushings may be the first port of call.

[Liquid Egg Rob]

It's been left drying out for a couple of weeks now, the state I described is its current state (about 2 weeks after the delivery.)

I had no idea it was being delivered on an open back truck in the rain, if I had then it definitely would have been covered up! Believe me! I couldn't believe it when it arrived. I appreciate the swift replies, I think we'll get in a local piano tuner to have a look, see if it's worth salvaging... probably just more worthwhile buying a second hand one.

[joe]

Burn it.

[MarkGoodwinPianos]

Apparently, there is a huge demand for turning old pianos into drinks cabinets these days.

I'm joking, if you have budget for a piano, don't accept any free ones. They are usually free for a very good reason - they're worthless.

[Colin Nicholson]

Hi Rob,
Sorry to hear the news & things not getting better. If its just the keys that have swolen, the job isn't that bad, but if most of the 'centre pins' are seized - like Johnkie said, then its a biggish job. Anything that 'moves' or 'swings' in a piano mechanism will have a wooden rectangular flange, with a small pin running through it. When the bits are working OK, there is only around 0.001mm tolerance for the pin to move freely around a bushed hole. If you get a tuner out, they will know if its the keys, mech. or both. If its worst senario, then some of the flanges may need to be re-bushed. The tuner will not know at this stage actually which ones are seized. For example, on this Chappell upright I am re-pinning, there are 5 pins per undercarriage/jack & sticker section. Multiply that by 88 = 440 pins!! - then there are the hammers X 88 and dampers X 65 (ish).

Here is a picky of a broken flange - this is the support arm flange for the sticker (some actions don't have them) - so just so you know what the part looks like. On a under-damped piano, the undercarriage flanges are at the back, the hammer flanges are at the front - behind the jacks, and the damper flanges (much smaller) are tucked away under the hammers - at the top of the main action rail. So its impossible for a tuner to know which ones are effected, and it is likely they may say a "complete pinning job"

Sticker flange.jpg (39.77 KiB) Viewed 9672 times

Cheers