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

Put a 25W light inside to dry out the felt. Don't leave it in for more than a week.
Try moving the hammers by hand, back and forth, while gently twisting and pulling up and then down. This may work in the pin felt and loosen it up. If you want the problem fixed, hire a tech. They will do it right and there are probably other problems with your piano.

Bushings are swollen up and possibly some weak/broken/popped out springs. Get the piano dryed out a bit like Mark suggested. If you can have a dehumidifier working for you in the room that would also help. Give it a week or two. Sometimes a little CLP on the bushings is all it takes along with working the hammers back and forth. Worse case scenario is that the bushings will nead a bit of reaming to get it to work properly.

Your ambition of playing the piano does not reside solely in this particular instrument. Give yourself half a chance, get rid of this thing, and then go out and get a piano that's not free.

There are other free pianos out there that are much better. They actually play! (Did you not notice everything was seized when you looked at the piano?)
Be sure to play it before hauling it home.
Remember - pay a piano technician to check it out before you commit to any piano. It will be the best money you ever invested.

To dry it out faster (assuming that's the problem) use a blow dryer with the heat on (high or low I'm not sure). Just move it back and forth pointing down at the hammers. If they start coming back in place you're in business. There's also a long spring on each hammer and sometimes a lot of those get out of place.

I would say the excessive moisture finished it off. Leave this one for a month to dry out? Try 3-6 months and even then there is no guarantee of any improvement.

Look at the dirt on the damper felts and hammer heads. The strike points of the hammers show how much dirt there is inside.

The rest of the action will be in similar condition. I would think that dirt accumulations are significant enough to cause more than just the hammer flanges to be contaminated.

Free pianos are never really free. I would not dump $300.00 in repairs on this one. For a few hundred more you can get an instrument in much better condition.

Thank you very much for your replies.

I actually tried That Guy's idea of using a hair dryer. I kept it at a distance for 5 minutes at a time 5 times and it has actually made a huge difference. Only like 2 or 3 notes now stick and the rest return, some slower than others, but still they return.
I'm sure there is other problems with it but for now I'm pretty happy.

Thanks for the hints, tips and advice

Keiron

I'm glad to hear it worked!