Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum craigslist find, Yamaha 42" upright for $250.00

the piano reportedly sat in 1 place for 30 years and was sold to me for $250.00 when the original owner went to the retirement home. They estimated it was purchased new in 1985 but I have doubts, she is not able to recall and lived alone.

First of all, it plays and looks excellent. This is all I know: it says made in Japan in the back, it has a little green inspection sticker on the back corner, the mod and ser numbers are supposed to be on top right of harp, according to yamaha but they are not nor do they look to ever have been there. Below the yamaha crescent in the center of the harp is 811913. It also came with matching yamaha bench labeled made in japan. The rosettes on bench and piano match so i assume they are paired.

here are pics: https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOrKZcfEjpicm3A0jyiZ-2fAWLWIGoAVT7wtpIx

$250.00 means I did good on the purchase but it would be nice to know what I have

And if your URL worked it might be possible to render an opinion.

hmm, see if this works [img:center]https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOrKZcfEjpicm3A0jyiZ-2fAWLWIGoAVT7wtpIx[/img]

No, that doesn't work either.

According to Yamaha's own website, that piano was built in 1969.

OK 1 more time: https://goo.gl/photos/wPWYMkXCER8sqmGf6

I wonder why there is no model or ser# where it should be?

Is it just me, or is there a spider web near the lower metal frame adjacent to the pedals? In fact, it looks like a lot of dust as well. OP, have you had it inspected at all, or cleaned?

You have done OK for an almost 50 year old Yamaha console, if it plays well.

I agree.

Congratulations!

Rick

it plays very well...every key has identical response, it does not have much wear. Its also very out of tune.
last night i carefully took every key out, vacuumed and blew out entire box with compressed air including spiderwebs. The soft pedal felt needs replaced, can i get a link for that? It looks glued on a stick of wood. Is that something a tech should do or can my crafty hands do it?
no it has never been inspected...now to find a tuner, surely it will be more than 1 tune to make it right. Ill post a video of the finished product...thanks for the help

A decent tuner should be able to fix the pedal. If everything works OK there is no point putting a lot of money into it.

If you are using air from a compressor be very careful and don't be tempted to use it anywhere near the action as it is capable of causing quite a lot of damage quite quickly.

The 'soft pedal felt' sounds like the punched felt washer at the lower end of the lifting rod. If so they are not glued but simply push into place over a central pin in the rod. Their only function is to stop a knocking noise when the pedal is operated. There is no reason not to do this yourself but note that the felt should be of the same thickness as the original or the regulation of the pedal will be affected. If you do not have any felt that is thick enough use two thinner pieces instead.

Tighten all the flange screws before you blow out the action, as there may be shims that can be lost if they're loose. Then you can use compressed air, but test it on your hand first, so you don't overdo it and cause damage.