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Hi,
I was lucky that my friend lends me an upright piano (tall 48")for my daughter to practice. I don't know how old is the piano but here is what the things that i'm not sure a problem or not and i need some of your expertise and opinion

1. the sound is kind of echo (my daughter playing). She used to play digital piano. The piano is against the wall and there is rug area underneath.
2. The pedal sound noisy when she releasing it after pressing down. I'm not sure if it's something that i can fix myself (like a soft material on top of pedal?)

I must say that acoustic piano is a big different.

Thank you for your time.

Andy

There could be several sources of the pedal noise, even to the way your daughter is using the pedal. Unless you know exactly what is causing the noise, I would suggest you not try to correct it yourself.

I am not sure what you mean by "echo". It is possible that some keys might be double-striking; a technician could correct that. It could also be that the damper pedal needs adjustment. Other than that, one would have to have a more detailed description of what is happening in order to diagnose the problem.

Have you had the piano tuned? I would suggest you have a (good) tuner tune the piano and address the problems that you are having.

Regards,

Agreed with BruceD. If you are loaned a piano to use for free, the least you could do would be to have the proper maintenance performed on it by a professional. I imagine the problems you're experiencing are easy to fix for a technician, and it's a good idea to have the piano tuned after a move. The technician may be able to look up the serial number of your piano and tell you the age as well.

Keep in mind that the strings of a real acoustic piano are 'live'. They are only silenced by a short felt-damper that presses on the strings with a small spring. A 4ft.-long string is damped by something less than two inches long! The top octaves of the piano have no dampers at all, and vibrate sympathetically with tones sounded lower down, so there is always a little thrum of sound when the acoustic piano is played. A little hum or zing of sound when you play an acoustic piano is part of the package and should be expected. If you have a chance to visit a piano store, or perhaps know a piano teacher or school where you can listen to other acoustic pianos, you can get a sense of what is 'normal' for an acoustic piano. They are very different from the digital world!

That said; you should be very careful about trying to DIY changes to the pedal trapwork. If you put a piece of felt above the pedal to quiet its impact on release, you may also need to adjust the pedal to start working a little later in the stroke. That piece of felt will fool the pedal into thinking that it has already been pushed a little, and you may find that the whole piano is now singing and ringing with every note you play!

Given that the piano has been loaned to you, and recently moved into your home, it would be normal and proper for you to have the piano tuned by a professional. If there is an issue with the pedal, or the felts associated with it, any competent technician will be able to handle that easily and quickly.

Enjoy!

A little echoey after ring is normal especially with uprights against a wall. Mine does it and it's been pronounce normal by several tech's and my teacher's upright did the same thing. It's not a sound you normally hear from a digital piano and it takes a while to get used to it. it would still be a good idea to have a technician in to make sure the dampers and other mechanism are in good working order.

KUrt

Thank you all for your suggestions.

My daughter said she's trying to get used to the sound of acoustic piano in home. The piano has been in our house just 3 days. I read somewhere that it must be at least 2-3 weeks to have the piano tuned?

Yes, i plan to get the piano tuning soon and will let the technician take a look at it.

By the way, the piano hasn't been tuned for probably 2 years (per owner's conversation)

Thank you.

Hi all,

I think the OP may be referring to what we call "damper leakage". Try hitting any chord played in both hands in a very quick staccato - and get right off after striking the keys. If you hear a short echo that lasts a second it could be a sign of the dampers being worn and/or the damper spring is no longer strong enough to stop the tone immediately.

Two fixes - the first - the damper spring can be "massaged" to give a little more strength to the damper. Second, damper felt could be replaced with new material. Laoureux makes very soft felt that might be ideal for this purpose. Lastly, new damper springs will definitely improve the situation.

Of course, without seeing the piano, this is all speculation on my part.

My 2 cents,

Unless it is one of the recent Baldwin 48" pianos, which are rare, it is probably very old, from before WWII and probably pre-Depression. A lot of things can happen in those 70+ years.