I have the chance to get a Vose' and Son Grand piano for free[/b] . The owner is moving out of state and must rid herself of many things, the piano being one of them.
I inspected the piano this morning and to my surprise found this to be in quite good condition.

I would like to hear some opinions from fellow techs on this board.
Here's what I know...

It is a Vose' and Sons Grand piano serial number 104799.
The keytops show a few chipped here and there and 2 completely missing. Side to side movement of keys is nominal.
B7 and C8 hammer heads are worn down to the wood. The remainder of the hammer heads are
fair. The dampers all look to be seating well and with the handful of random checks I made as to there working order, my assessment was OK.
The pedals all operate as required and are silent.
The soundboard showed no visible signs of cracks and the ribs were securely attached. The bridges showed no cracks or splitting.
Action removal and replacement showed no issues.
Keys actually looked in very good shape.
The strings looked as though they were just old. No discernable amounts of rust.
The pins looked "their age" but not rusty. From what I could see of the pin block there was no cracking.
The random checks of the pins gave me readings from 63-82 in/pounds torque. (69 degrees and 58% humidity)

Cosmetically, the piano looked fair. Nothing to write home about.
The lid hinges were a bit loose upon my arrival.

My assessment of the pioano was that of "It would be a good piano for me to "practice my tech skills and hopefully end up with a decent grand in the process".

I know very little of vose and sons. I have tuned a few but they were consoles. They seemed like a quality piano but I do not have a big history of them.
I do not know the model number (or if there even is one) for this piano.

All I know for certain are my inspection findings and that the price is right...

All comments welcome...

Thank you!

If you want to practice doing large-scale repairs on a grand, Vose pianos were good enough that they will yield good results if you do good work.[/b] You might be able to sell it for enough to make it worthwhile afterwards, again, if you do good work.

I purchased a Vose grand last year and have been pondering what repairs to start with. It is a 6'5 (concert?) grand, and the serial number is 98970 (possibly made in the 1930s?)

I had two ivory keytops that were very chipped so I replaced them with new ivory tops. Side to side movement of keys is nominal.

The dampers all look to be seating well. The pedals all operate as required and are silent. The soundboard has two minor cracks. The bridges showed no cracks or splitting.
Action removal and replacement showed no issues.

The strings looked as though they were old and possibly some surface rust.

Cosmetically, the piano looked fair with some minor scratches and one corner has been chipped away. I purchased some piano surface wax matched to the piano's color but it is proving to be more work than I expected.

One of the lid hinges needs to be replaced.

Any recommendation on where to find the best stain and coating materials? - some surfaces need some work on this piano. Any thoughts or suggestions?

One nice thing about the Vose & Son's pianos were that their tuning pins were slightly tapered. If loose tuning pins are encountered, we can tap them in and solving this problem. Of course, properly supporting the pin block is in order to avoid cracking the plate...