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Hello

Newbie here! I'm thinking of acquiring a Baldwin Acrosonic from an acquaintance. But he recently added this information about the piano:

"When I moved it 60 days ago about 80 feet into the garage, about a dozen keys on the far right and about a half dozen on the far left became immobile. I don't know why, because it had been working fine."

My first question to the Forum is, should I be running from this Baldwin, and if so, how quickly?!

Thanks for any advice.

Greg:
should I be running from this Baldwin, and if so, how quickly?!



HTH

-Michael B.

That's hilarious!!!
Mike

Perhaps he forgot the small detail that the garage is really a boathouse at the bottom of the cliff below the house? No, that would make it a Wurlitzer.

Friends don't let friends have their old piano.

Seriously-it could be simple and minor and hopefully a technician here can offer a possible cause.

While this whole thread is somewhat humorous - you are trying to make a serious decision.

My advice is the same as it would be if the piano had not been moved - get a tech to do a purchase consult for you. This is always a good idea - that way you know if there are any immediate or upcoming repairs. The condition of the action, strings, felt, soundboard etc will all be assessed in a purchase consult.

A few bucks now may save you hundreds - even thousands in work after you are stuck with a bad buy!

The problem with the keys may be trivial, but even so, you should not get a spinet if you can avoid it.

I find that over a piano's life time allot of people leave parts off of the action that are mainly used to hold the action parts in place when the piano is tipped sideways or moved
I got a piano last year that every key came up of their pins when tipped sideways, took about two hours to realine every key.
You have toset the piano upright and carefully pull the action making sure none of it;s parts such as the hammers get caught on anything when sliding it out and see what happend.
Dan

'Could be something as simple as the treble end of the capstan rail dropping. The screws on the upper end may have fallen out, and that long lost fountain pen may have rolled into the inner reaches of the bass action. 'Easy fix for capstan rail. 'Kinda' messy for the fountain pen.

Good luck. Personally, I wouldn't turn my nose up at it. If you're on a tight budget, you could do worse.

Great dog, Michael, and thanks also for input from others. I will see about getting a technician to look at it.

BDB, I realize it would be good to "do better" than a spinet right now, but the budget is tight. I'm simply trying to move my 10 year old, who is successfully into his second year of lessons, off of an inexpensive electronic keyboard now that his learnings include pedal work. A baby grand would be wonderful, but a good used one appears to be in the $2,000+ range and that's out of the question for 2007.

Thanks again.

I bet there are other pianos, at least consoles, that you could get for the same price if you let out the word that you are interested.

I would say before paying someone to look in it at it yourself. the problem could be very obvious.
You could also check craigslist.org There's quite a few free pianos in decent shape out there. I got a P. A. Stark spinet which was incredible condition and a Kranich and Bach grand with a wonderful tone.

Do the terms "incredible condition" and "wonderful tone" come from the ads for FREE pianos? ;-)

I've been playing piano for over thirty years and have played on quite a lot of pianos.
And when I stated "incredible condition" I mean it looked like new inside and out, sounded great and the action had a nice feel to it.
I do agree, If you don't know much about pianos then it's always a good idea to have a tech look at it before spending to much money on one.
There was a person around here who got a baby grand for free last summer and after paying $350 for the moving it home found out the the pinblock was bad and it wouldn't hold it's tune.
I'm not sure where you live but around Boston there's about six free ones a week. Only one nice one every couple of months and they're gone quick.

A quick update: I passed on the piano that had the mechanical difficulty, and moved on to another old Acrosonic (not sure of its age, but I'm guessing it is from the 50s or 60s). Everything appears mechanically sound, but I will have a technician evaluate it soon! It was $450 plus $300 for a professional move (down a staircase and then 45 miles).

Thanks for all the input. Hopefully in a couple of years we will upgrade to a better piano, and sell this one for not a lot less than we paid.