Hello everyone! I was wondering..I have this 30 year old Currier spinet (small strings, I know), and it has never been tuned. Do you think it would be worth it to even bother tuning it, from experience of tuning this kind of pianos, or will it sound and play just as bad as it does now? It's probably a quarter-tone flat, on the verge of being a semitone off. Do you think its worth the 90 bucks to get it tuned? And do you think it could be tuned in one day, since it hasn't been tuned in so long, you may have to tune it very slowly. Tuning pianos isn't my expertise though, so what's everyone's opinion? One last time, its a Currier spinet (Don't know model or anything..company is probably out of business by now, and my dad's had it since he was my age). Thanks!

Do you think it would be worth it to even bother tuning it? ---Yes, but it will take more than one tuning to stabilize it. Curriers are not well made pianos. They don't take pitch raises very well.

Will it sound and play just as bad as it does now? ---These are starter pianos at best. It will never be a great sounding or playing piano. The general quality is too low. It's fine for the first year or two of lessons. No more than that.

Do you think its worth the 90 bucks to get it tuned? ---It will cost more than 90 bucks to get this piano to pitch. Count on a charge for a pitch raise, then a followup tuning in 2-4 weeks.

Alright thanks for all the advice. Actually a friend of ours said he'd tune it and do everything for that price though. I'll take all that into consideration

If it wasn't worth it to tune the piano all this time, why do you care to tune it now?

If it was my piano I would:

1 - Tune it, dump it, then go out a buy a real piano.

OR

2 - Dump it, as is.

OR

3 - Convert it to firewood.

The Curriers are simply some of the worst pianos out there.

Aside from all that, $90 for the intitial tuning and another $90 for a followup in 2 weeks would be realistic and very reasonable, if you are serious about restoring the tuning of your piano.

Actually this whole time I never played piano. This piano was given to my father before I was even born (he never even played piano..he plays trumpet). I started playing 5 months ago. I'm doing good so I'm thinking of continuing. I'll tune it, and if its still as horrible as it is now, I will sell it or even just give it to some kid who cant afford a piano at all. I'll see if something happens where I can get a nice piano, and stick with my digital keyboard 'til then.

If you think you can develop a real passion for playing piano, do yourself a favor and go piano shopping.

Go see what some high quality pianos feel and sound like. Upright-wise, check out a Yamaha U1, or a Petrof 52" for instance - two of my favorites.

Also, the Currier, even after the tuning is restored, won't hold a tuning as well as a better piano. So tuning more often can very much be necessary. Lower performance, higher maintenance ... not a good combination.

But give it a whirl, and best of luck to you. If you like the sound well enough to get going, that's a good thing. But if you find yourself not enjoying the Currier and going back to the digital, a better quality acoustic may be the next thing for you.