Given piano with problems .. keep it or dump it.

[mooch]

I know practically nothing about pianos, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My 6 year old son is learning keyboard, so when we saw that my dad's neighbours were moving out and ditching their piano, he asked if he could have it. He played Mary had a little lamb and it sounded fine. The neighbours weren't there, just some friends of theirs helping with the clear out so I wasn't able to get a history of piano so I naively wheeled it round to my dad's.

It was only later that I found out that a some of the keys don't make a sound (couple of strings loose inside), others kind of reverberate and the left peddle feels loose.

We have builders in a my dad's the next couple days and they have offered to dispose of the piano if we'd like.

Could it be worth keeping and repairing it? As I say it was only acquired on impulse and it doesn't seem worth keeping if it's going to cost us a lot in repairs.

It's a Monington & Weston. Serial number 73765.

[Gill the Piano]

M&W were a good make. The string will cost you upwards of 30 quid, at a guess. You should get a tuner in to look at it, we can't tell the state of the plank/soundboard etc by looking at photos. I think it could probably be a good piano to start on, but without an inspection it's impossible to tell.

[Colin Nicholson]

Looks like a DIY tuning job.
If it's not been tuned for a while, sometimes bass strings break as they bend sharply around those small pins (upper bridge pins) just below the tuning pins.,,,,, caused by an adhesion of metal/ rust/ corrosion joining the steel wire & pin.... need to be carefully lubricated ( NOT WD40!!) . Then I suspect someone has attempted to remove the broken strings by unwinding the tuning pins (which is not the right way to do it). If you book a piano tuner/ technician - they can take the broken strings away and send off for new ones to pattern (takes a few days).... then tune it. Looks a lot worse than it is.
Rest of piano action looks OK.
Don't worry about left pedal - its used for more advanced playing. Maybe fix it later, or ask the tuner to look at it.

If the tuning pins have been unwound to the point the coils around it have straightened out (wiggly shaped).... the pins may be loose where the broken pins are. Easy job replacing the odd ones with next size up.
If 3-4 bass bi-chords broken, and tuning - I would estimated about £100 - £120 to have the lot fixed.... piano is worth more than that. Dated mid 1960s according to book.... and a fairly good make of piano. Certainly not dumping material. If your son starts lessons, please remove the stick on letters! ....

Hope that helps....