Knight upright - urgent advice needed

[Scallan91]

I've recently inherited a Knight, upright piano purchased around the 1980s for about £3,000. I know very little about it (and live quite far away from it) which is proving rather difficult when trying to describe it for potential buyers.

It was tuned last year and is in very good condition.

Any advice on the specification/dimensions/year/value/model would be very much appreciated!

Many Thanks.
Sara

[vernon]

looks like a K 10

[Scallan91]

Thanks very much for your help. Do you have any idea of the kind of wood it's made from?

[vernon]

we used to collectively call this "tree-wood" meaning that it joined several other unspecified and unidentified timbers.
However, Knights called this walnut.

[Colin Nicholson]

if you are wanting to sell this fairly quickly (say on Ebay?) - then best not to use photos 1,2 and 3. Photo 4 is good & clear. Also, avoid any kind of 'clutter' around the piano (and on it - even though you have a hi-fi & speakers - best removing them)...
Remove all personal belongings around the piano aswell.... chairs, bags, wiring, etc.... and maybe a good photo to take front off & take one of the whole mechanism.
The Knight patent numbers are not needed.

If you remove the top front panel, you will see a serial number to the right, near the tuning pins (about 5 or 6 digits).... let us know this number, and if poss. include this number in your photos.

The wood is similar to a walnut colour, but not grain or burred, but not strictly correct - more like a light oak.... and it has a polyester finish (glass look). The wood will be veneered possibly.

Spec: Upright console piano/ 88 key/ full iron frame/ over-strung & under-damped.
Dimensions? .... you need to measure this yourself.... only height & width needed.
Year: .... given by the serial number..... but est. 1950s - 1960s
Value: Needs to be inspected manually for condition internally, but if a quick auction sale, start bidding around £200 mark.... maybe a reserve.

Last tuned: give dates and offer to show previous invoices.
Stool included?

One last thing..... avoid taking photos with the lid SHUT.... best left open.
Maybe a nice vase of flowers/ metronome on it.... but always remove all personal items completely out of view in photos. Its like taking a photo of a car, and having your grand mother sat in the back!

hope that helps

[athomik]

Maybe a nice vase of flowers/ metronome on it....

I always advise customers to never to put flowers, drinks or anything containing liquids anywhere near their piano. Too dangerous.

Adrian Thomas

[rovikered]

I never allow anything to be placed on my pianos.
A piano is a musical instrument (and for playing, not an ornament)and not a piece of furniture for displaying vases/flowers, photographs, china, glassware or anything else!
rk.

[vernon]

We encourage people to put things on the piano.
A grand piano allows one to display five times the number of christmas cards as opposed to an upright.Photos too. It can ,at the same time accommodate at least one vase of flowers poised to spill water into the long-hinge on the half top. Fortuitously, that directs the water exactly over the dampers and thence to the hammers.
However, it can present an inconvenience to some customers who ask" Do you want me to clear the top of the piano before you tune it?"
On entering a house and contemplating what appears to be the knick-knack stall at next week's boot fair only to discover it it is the family piano, one can only concur that a clearance would be helpful.
That's not to mention the lamp on the piano with the too- short cable that can't be removed so you can't lift the lid properly.
When they say " the last tuner never had a problem" the question arises-"Why isn't he STILL the tuner?" or is he in the PTA Home for Bewildered Tuners?
I was recently at a school and a teacher clasping a small child and small violin asked if it would disturb my tuning if they practised QUIETLY by the piano.

yours faithfully
bewildered Tunbridge Wells.

[joseph]

No, but seriously Vernon, did that actually happen? Did someone honestly ask if violin practice would disturb your tuning?

[Gill the Piano]

Joseph, you haven't heard the HALF of it. Washing machines which sound like something lifting off from Cape Canaveral or wherever, baying dogs, men with leaf-blowers in the garden JUST outside the window, screaming brats fighting in the same room, whistling customers peering over the shoulder, an ENTIRE SCHOOL CHOIR being herded in to practise - 'We'll have to sing up because of the noise, children!' - school secretaries who book you in to tune the piano in the hall at feeding time (also in the hall), simultaneous hoovering and singing, carpetlayers merrily hammering away at the skirting boards, french horn/drum practice in the room nextdoor....all of these followed by an amazed 'O...is it disturbing you then?? ' in tones of utter amazement. We could keep you entertained for WEEKS!!

[vernon]

Gill must go to all the p;aces we do
My anecdote is true not a chestnut but this year.
On the same trip I went to the hew £10million island school to find the ancient old piano re-instated. The janitor(caretaker) told me I wasn't allowed to touch it as it was dangerous!( This is after my having penetrated several layers of security buttons to gain entry etc|)
It was propped up on blocks having lost the back castors. I was more than his job' worth to let me touch.I pointed out it was more than mine to leave it to squash a small child.
I fitted new ones while he went off to complain to someone