Advice please

[eddypeddy]

I have the opportunity of buying a Grotrian Steinweg upright piano which is 80-100 years old from a lady who was an accomplished pianist in her youth. She can no longer play and is keen for her beloved piano to go to a good home. It has clearly been looked after and treasured. She wants 1000 pounds sterling for it. Is this a good price? Should I consider buying it? Advice very welcome.
eddy

[Barrie Heaton]

I would pay a tuner to look at it at that age it could end up as a money pit

Barrie

[Colin Nicholson]

Many new buyers of pianos are often lured by the exterior look of a piano, shiny polish, ''well looked after'' and keys cleaned every day, carvings, mother of pearl, brass candle holders, ornate legs, no scratches etc etc.... however, the main point of buying a piano is because it is a musical instrument - and inside the working parts, there are around four thousand mechanical parts including strings, hammers, levers, dampers.... and so on. For a 99p piano on Ebay - go for it, see what happens - but for around 2k, you can buy a basic budget upright piano .... BRAND NEW! .... so as Barrie says, if you are prepared to pay 1k for an old 100 year old piano (which we can however give you an estimate of the date if you give us the serial number inside) .... I would most certainly pay the extra few quid to get a piano tuner to check it over - mainly for peace of mind.
Then you can always decide - or walk away.
Pianos are also alot harder to sell than buy!

[WellTempered]

Definitely get a tuner/piano technician to look at it as it is old enough to have structural problems ...and if none then it would be a lovely buy xx

[Model V]

Agreed. This could be a fabulous piano and if overhauled, possibly stunning. It'll never be new again but I don't think that's the point.

Get a top technician to look over it though (as suggested above). There could be any one of a number of faults that would make this piano worthless to you as a musical instrument. My advice would be to also check the individual is an actual technician, not just a tuner. If you post your rough geographical area, there'll be someone who can point you in the right direction.

MV.