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Thanks very much for your help, everyone. Finding a tech in the town where the seller is a good idea, but the town is pretty small so I doubt there is a tech there. I think I will reread the inspection chaper of The Piano Book and pack it, a flashlight, chromatic tuner, etc. and do my best.

What about an Everett would make it sturdier and a safer bet than other brands?

Thanks,
Alice

Hi Alice,

The Everett brand has a pretty good reputation from what I have read, but to answer your question, (in my view) there are so many brands out there that one brand does not necessarily stand out all that much more than another, especially at a $500 price point. Once you do a good bit of shopping around, you will see what I am talking about.

Also, if you feel the need to make a decision on purchasing a used piano without a tech inspection, here is what I would do:

Follow Ron Tuner’s instructions and play each note carefully to listen for a clear tone and a good sustain (the longer the better). Listen for consistent tone from one note to the next.

Look under the bottom of the keyboard and locate the foot-board/kick-board; this panel is designed to come off easily and is usually held securely with a flexible metal stop; push up on the stop and gently pull on the top of the foot board and remove it from the piano. There are usually two small wooden dowels to secure it at the bottom. Once removed, you can inspect the bass bridge and most of the treble bridge as well as much of the sound board. With your flash-light, look for cracks or splits in the bridge(s) where the bridge pins are located; check for splits or cracks in the sound board. You can get a good look at the sound board from the rear of the piano also. Look for excessive rust on the strings.

Next, open the top lid and take a good look at the felt hammers and the action. Look for deep groves in the strike point of the hammers and for moth damage or other broken or missing parts. If every thing looks clean, straight and in order, you are probably Okay.

On the keyboard, wiggle the keys slightly from side to side to check for key bushing ware. They should move slightly but not a lot. Check for sticky keys or excessive clicks or knocks when depressing or releasing the key.

Please keep in mind that I am not an RPT and any advice I have given you is worth what it has cost you .

Also, keep in mind that there are some risks involved in buying any used piano without a thorough inspection from a professional piano tech. But at a $500 price point, you're not really risking all that much, right?

Best regards and best of luck with your search.

Rickster

If the Everett sounds reasonably well in tune, and if all the notes play fairly evenly, I would say go ahead and buy it. The chances of something major being wrong with it if passes those tests is slim. If you can talk to the last tech who worked on it, that would improve the odds even more, provided that he or she does not hedge words too much. If you want to be absolutely safe, then hire an independent tech. But to save money, look at the piano first, and decide if this is the one you want. If you have a tuning fork or some other tone standard, take it along to see if the piano is close to pitch.

Rickster and BDB,

Thanks very much for the inspection tips and other advice. How deep would the grooves in the hammer felts be when you would be concerned?

Thanks,
Alice

Hi Alice,

Even a new piano that has been played a moderate amount will have some slight indentions or groves in the strike point of the hammers. What you don’t want to see are groves that are a 16th of an inch or deeper. This is generally a good indication as to how much the piano has actually been played; if it has been played a lot, deeper groves, if it has been played a little, very shallow groves.

Of course, a good piano tech can file/reshape worn hammers to refresh them to last a while longer and sound better. This is usually part of the voicing of the hammers.

Again, I’m not a piano tech; I’m just a guy who is interested in pianos and tunes/services my own instruments.

Best regards,

Rickster

Just a thought from a piano teacher's perspective.

You mentioned that your daughter might not stick with it. I hear this concern a lot from parents whose kids are starting lessons. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation. Nothing will put her off faster than a bad piano. For this kind of price you would be very lucky indeed to find a decent piano. You get what you pay for most of the time. I would not say it’s impossible and that Everett in the picture could turn out to be a bargain. Just be careful, if you don’t know what you are looking for you could end up with a lemon. Is there any way you could take someone with you who plays?

My advice is often to look for a lightly used digital around a couple of years old. That way you don’t suffer the depreciation and it will be easy to sell on providing you stick with well known names like Yamaha, Kawai, Roland etc. If all the notes work it is unlikely that there would be anything else wrong with it. You should easily find one in your budget.

Another possibility would be to look into renting with an option to buy later if she does take to it. This way you get a decent piano without the risk. It might cost a bit more in the long run though.

I wound up looking at two Everett studios this morning: the 1983 home model that I linked previously and a late 1950's institutional studio that I found at a piano mover's shop. I used the inspection checklist in Fine's Piano Book. The 1950's one had been in a church and was in pretty good shape considering, but the keys seemed to have some sideways looseness.

The home model was badly out of tune but was in very nice cosmetic condition and appeared to have very little wear on the hammers, etc. The parents had bought the piano 4 years ago and never had it tuned. I can understand why the daughter lost interest in the piano; as much as liked the feel of the keys, I couldn't stand the out-of-tuneness. It had been on the market for a while, so maybe the out-of-tuning had scared off other potential buyers. The clincher on the deal was that the owner agreed to find a friend and help us load the piano on our truck, saving $175 for a mover. He also came down a bit on the price, so we stayed within our budget. We still have to figure out how to unload the piano at our house.

So, thank you very much for helping us find this piano! I am very pleased to have found such a nice piano, given our modest budget. I expect that we'll be happy with it for many years to come.

Hi Alice,

Congratulations on your new-to-you pinao. Be very careful unloading it and get as much help as you can. If you were closer to my location I would be glad to come and help you unload it.

I love to see the happiness that a piano can bring to a family!

Best regards,

Rickster

Congratulations. I hope that your story will inspire others to think that their piano is out there at their price.

Rickster,

Thank you for the willingness to help.

BDB,

Ah, that piano was out there, but it was you very nice people who pointed it out to me!

Thanks so much,
Alice

I hope it can be tuned to pitch. Let it settle for a couple of weeks after moving. You might find it needs tuning a couple of tunings to bring it up. It is worth investing in a decent tech for advice on this.

Now, please don't let it suffer like it has for the last few years!

Well, we lugged the piano home today without mishap. Now it's on to the world of piano tuning... I will call the piano tech tomorrow.

Thanks,
Alice

Hi Alice,

Have you thought about tuning it yourself . Just kidding .

I have learned to tune my own pianos and the first time I attempted to tune one it took me about 8 hours (of course I had to do the pitch raise the first time). At that time, all I had was an A440 tuning fork and the Arthur A Reblitz Book, Piano Servicing, Tuning and Rebuilding.

Now it takes me about 2 hours and I use a computer software program called Tune-Lab Pro loaded on to my laptop computer.

Of course, now, I have a renewed respect for piano tuners .

Best regards and enjoy your piano,

Rickster

You got a tremendous deal. The amount you will pay to have it tuned is nothing compared to how much you got for your money. I would recommend asking about having the capstans and let-off adjusted, and I suspect that there would be very little difference from a new piano after that is done, except that the regulation steps last longer in a piano that has a few years in it. You should easily be able to get back all the money you spent after doing all that.

BDB,

Thank you very much for all your help and vote of confidence. I will dive into the Piano Book to learn what the capstans and the let-off are.

Chris,

I would like to do some of my own tuning but I try to follow the Hippocratic Oath, "first do no harm." I read a warning about the possibility of loosening the tuning pins with improper technique. I need to find out how much chance there is of that. I play guitar and played violin, so I'm comfortable with string tuning. I also have lots of construction experience (part of the DIY budget experience), so I'm comfortable with a wrench.

According to my Korg CA30 chromatic tuner, the notes are 30-80 cents flat. I thought about ordering a tuning lever and wedges and, at least, doing a rough pitch raise until the tech can come and do a real tuning. I need to learn more about any risk first, though.

Thanks,
Alice

Hi Alice,

If you are really interested in learning more about piano tuning and possibly learning to tune your own piano, here are a couple of references I would recommend to get started. Arthur A. Reblitz’ book “Piano Servicing, Tuning and Rebuilding” and Chuan C. Chang’s online book “Fundamentals of Piano Practice” (particularly the chapter on piano tuning). Here is the URL for Chang http://members.aol.com/chang8828/tuning.htm. Both talk about proper tuning hammer technique.

In all honesty, I have had about as much fun learning to tune and service my own pianos as I have learning to play them. There is a certain euphoric “high” that I get when tuning a tri-cord unison and getting them synchronized to the same pitch so they blend together as one; not to mention the “high” that I get when the entire piano is tuned. I can think of some much more harmful ways to get high .

When you get the piano tech to tune the piano for you I’m sure you will learn a lot from just watching and asking questions .

Best regards,

Rickster

Rickster,

Thanks for the information about piano tuning. I looked quickly at the Chang article and it seems really good. The Reblitz book comes very well recommended on Amazon. I would like to understand tuning better because it matters for the guitar, too. That's great that you get so much satisfaction out of tuning.

The piano tech just called back and we have a pitch raising and tuning scheduled for Thursday. It will be great to get it tuned. My daughter is enjoying this piano and I will be relieved to have it in tune!

Thanks,
Alice

The piano technician just tuned the piano a few cents sharp of A440 and adjusted a couple hammers that were bouncing. This tech was really nice and showed me how to do some regulation and was positive about my doing some of my own tuning and regulation. He will be ordering a little tuning kit and a regulation kit for me and I will order the Reblitz book. He remarked several times that this piano for $700 was a tremendous deal.

Thanks, everyone, for your help and encouragement!

Alice