Brinsmead & Sons piano

strandomranger · Post by **strandomranger** » 22 Mar 2011, 00:15

Hi,
An elderly relative has sadly passed away; among her possessions is a John Brinsmead & Sons Vertical Iron Frame piano. An auctioneer had a look around the place and said simply that nobody was interested in pianos! It seems a real shame to scrap it as a quick search on here reveals an interesting history to the company. It's not in the best condition, I think the ten highest notes don't work (I've not looked inside) I don't know the serial number and it's not easy for me to go back there. My question is simply this, what is the best thing to do? considering that it is extremely heavy and not in the best condition, is it worth salvaging? It seems such a shame to even think about scrapping it, but if it's not worth anything to anyone (the family has another piano) what else can we do? I have two photos for you to take a look at. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

http://img534.imageshack.us/i/1000404si.jpg/
http://img810.imageshack.us/i/1000405m.jpg/

Colin Nicholson · Post by **Colin Nicholson** » 22 Mar 2011, 03:12

There is little we can do to advice you since no one knows the real condition of the piano, and why those 10 notes don't work? It looks about 100 years old, and regrettably this would never sell to the trade or most auctions. Pianos like this seldom reach more than about £10 at auction.
If you get the council/ trade to scrap it, they will charge you for removal.

You could always put it on Freecycle & see what happens, but with multiple repairs ahead, and generally the piano looking very shabby - your guess is as good as mine.

Freecycle is free to advertise, no charges - but the prospective owner would have to arrange their own removal - assuming the piano is on a ground floor & normal access.

Good luck

MarkGoodwinPianos · Post by **MarkGoodwinPianos** » 22 Mar 2011, 07:50

The trouble with freecycling junk pianos is that you risk killing someone's musical ambition and they may end up quitting before they begin if they end up with a terrible piano. Little Timmy could be as keen as punch but a bad piano could kill his enthusiasm and Mum and Dad may refuse to buy him a better one.

If you do put it on ebay, freecycle or gumtree I'd recommend that you include the phrase "caution you will probably have to throw lots of money at this piano to get it working. It is only suitable as a piano of furniture, not as a working musical instrument"

Otherwise, it just ain't fair to pass it on

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 22 Mar 2011, 12:17

But what if it is perfectly tuneable, and easy and cheap to repair? There are thousands of pianos pretty much like this in front rooms across Britain still giving people a lot of pleasure, and although it may not be our choice of instrument, we are not in a position to judge a piano we haven't seen.

Are we to throw away all our history?

Get a tuner to check it over.

I would get onto Freegle if you don't want it, they fetch very little at local auctions here.

Have a look at the 1910 item above.

MarkGoodwinPianos · Post by **MarkGoodwinPianos** » 22 Mar 2011, 12:53

Bill says:

But what if it is perfectly tuneable, and easy and cheap to repair?

Yes then keep that definitely. The trouble is your average Joe doesn't know the difference between a piano that is worth keeping/selling and one that should be kept away from musicians at all costs. I don't think average Joe should pay £xx for an inspection only to be told that his piano is worthless. I don't think that is fair. So that's why he comes here seeking advice. It only needs a few photos (inside and out) and a few questions (do all the keys work? When was it last tuned? Does the piano ring on when you stop playing?) then a rough (but very helpful) valuation can be given. And that's all the owner usually wants.

The answer usually seems to be:
£0 - to the trade (or they will charge to take it away)
£50 - to a mate (mate loses out if the piano is junk and he's paid removal fee too)
£7.67 - eBay (average joe loses because he buys what he thinks is a good piano but if it's junk he loses out big time)
£0 - Freecycle (average joe loses out again for the above reasons)

When junk pianos get passed around everyone else loses apart from the piano movers.
In my opinion we owe it to the musicians of the UK to help prevent people from selling or giving away these old wrecks. Imagine a 6 year old girl hacking her way through her first 3 grades on one of those things. It could easily put her off for life and she may have gone on to great musical things but could instead end up serving chips instead.

Disclaimer: At this stage I'm only talking in very general terms about pianos that are certified junk with no musical use left in them. I'm not talking about the Brimsmead mentioned above which may be a lovely piano

strandomranger · Post by **strandomranger** » 11 Apr 2011, 17:40

Thanks for the info/opinions. It's sad but it looks like the winning solution is to take an axe to the piano and take the iron to a scrap metal merchants. It seems such a shame. Like you say, this thing has a lot of history to it; you would think that some organisation or someone somewhere would want it! I agree it's not going to be the best training tool for a budding young pianist ..... but surely it's worth more as a whole then as scrap?! Anyway, thanks for the feedback, it does seem that it's worthless and is due for the bonfire

By the way, the piano is on Anglesey, if anyone wants to offer it a last minute stay of execution. Free to a good home. Stored on ground floor, but very, very heavy.

strandomranger · Post by **strandomranger** » 12 Apr 2011, 18:15

Hi, believe me I would like to preserve it. Took a look inside it today, wires were very rusty as were the things that fasten them (showing my ignorance here!) Keys on the keyboard are uneven ....... not sure if that's a symptom of anything? There were two numbers under the lid, one on either side...... C&S 160325 on the left side and 44061 on the right.

I don't know who would want this, needs a professional's attention I think

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