Piano Problems

[KeironP]

Hi.
Im pretty new to all this so please be gentle :p

I have always had an ambition to learn to play the piano. When I was younger I had a keyboard and started to learn myself but never pursued.
I was looking on a website recently and seen that someone was advertising a piano for free due to being unused and taking up space. I jumped at the chance and went and got it.
I took it home gave it a clean and put it in my conservatory only to find that when I press the keys they don't really work.

I lifted the top of the piano to see that when I press the keys and the hammers hit the strings, the hammers don't return to original position, they just stick which means I can only hit a key once. This is the same for every key apart from about 6 of them. It's really disappointing because I was so excited about getting it.
I phoned up a techy and he said that it could be that because it had been stored in a garage for some time the humidity had got into the pins and that's what's causing the problem and to leave it for about a month to see if its any better and if not then I'm looking at a cost of at least £300 which I would not be able to afford.

I just wanted some advice if there is anything else I can do as my partner is telling me to just forget it and call it a write off and get rid of it, but I am set on following my ambition!

Any help, tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.





Thank you in advance

Keiron

[Gill the Piano]

First, get the piano OUT of the conservatory before the summer. You will cook it.
Leave it open with the front off, don't put any extra heaters near it, let the air circulate around it. Play every key (black uns as well) every day to get it moving, up and down the whole keyboard.
Give it a month or so, THEN call the tuner in. If the keys are sticking down, push them firmly but gently from one side to the other, WITHOUT twisting. If you're doing that to a sharp (black key), grip it below where the ebony top joins the bottom half, or you'll twist the top off.
I think it says CRAMER which is a good make, and it looks to be 1925/30 ish.

[Colin Nicholson]

It is likely that the whole action mechanism will need re-pinning. Not a disaster by any means, but around 2 day's work for a piano tech. It is also likely most of the other parts have seized aswell - such as the lever flanges, jacks and possibly the damper flanges..... and depending on the condition of the bridle tapes, they may need to be replaced aswell. Regrettably DAMP can be a killer - but if its caught early, should be OK.

The piano itself looks fairly decent, but always risky getting free pianos on-line (Ebay?) .... and as the saying goes.... "there's no such thing a FREE!"

Leave the piano to "air" for a while as Gill suggests, but I suspect most of the notes will still need to be re-pinned. The seller hasn't really done you any favours, but you've done a massive favour for him/her.... and now releaved them of all the piano problems, and they've got more space.... life can be cruel.

(Appendix)

If you look at the diagram below, this is a cross section of a piano mechanism, similar to yours (but without part 42 - sticker & assembly parts around it).
If you look at the coloured dots - these are the tiny centre pins that form a hinge for all moving parts to swing back & forth - there are four pins per note (340 pins on an 85 key piano). As the hammers are easily visible from the top, these will stand out more to the naked eye than the other parts - and on occasions, we wrongly think that these are just to blame for the piano not working..... so there may a combination of several notes with up to four of their flanges not working. If the hammer or jack flange pin seize up - the note stops working after a 2nd attempt.

The red dot is the hammer flange pin (around 1.3mm pin) - usually the wood and bushing cloth that surrounds the pin (marked in red) will have swolen. You may also find that some of the other pins (coloured green, blue & yellow) have also seized - but without looking right inside the mechanism, or removing & testing each part, it is difficult to see at a glance. Click on the image to enlarge >>>

Mechanism showing centre pins