OT What to do with a gorgous upright piano?

gbent · Jan 15, 2018

My parents have a 100 year old Bush & Gerts upright piano. It is going to move out from the house. The wood veneer is absolutely gorgeous. Its a book matched, highly figured walnut. The piano wood is in very nice condition.

My question is do these have any value at all? I would salvage the wood if it comes to that, but my woodpecker skills are nowhere near the class of the veneer in this piano.

Conrad Hoffman · Jan 15, 2018

Unfortunately most pianos have almost no value these days and many go to scrap. Maybe see if a school wants it.

Pathogen · Jan 15, 2018

In 200 years it will be worth about $100 as an antique. The wood in it is very stable and is valuable to model builders and antique furniture restorers. I would advertise it for free on some list.

Limy Sami · Jan 15, 2018

I don't know, ........... but there are thousands on Ebay piano in Pianos | eBay ....and from a quick scan on google - unless it's a desired model - it seems to be worth less than firewood.

Jim Williams · Jan 15, 2018

In some places they will charge you for hauling it away.

Tony Quiring · Jan 15, 2018

A local thrift store can get good money for good looking ones but it takes time.

A lot depends on your area as the taste of the locals matters.

Second choice is churches and private schools.

Everything going electronic as they are portable and cheap but the real thing is often prefered.

If you go to church and they have someone who plays have them check it out to see how it plays to them and put out the word that it needs to find a home.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk

mjk · Jan 15, 2018

I have the "family" upright that my parents bought new in the early 60's.
My sisters used it and it became a nice place for Christmas cards and family pictures.
Since I was the closest sibling, and my daughters promised to take lessons, I moved it to my house in the late 80's.
Daughters are out of the house, middle C needs work, I've had quotes as high as $200.00 to "dispose" of it.
No one wants it for free.
There was a U tube video of a company in NY city that specializes in removal at 200-$$$ depending on location.
They bring them back to the shop, take a sledge hammer to them, grab the cast iron and other metals, send the rest to a landfill.

I build musical drums as a hobby, mine will probably be cut up for that, at least it won't become firewood.

Like old iron, a working piano is hard to just toss

cranium · Jan 15, 2018

Get a local artisan to make you a Steinway & Sons or Bosendorfer decal. Gently soak off or scrape away the Bush and Gerts label and apply your new decal. Put the piano in a dimly lit room and run an ad on craigslist. You'll have buyers tripping over themselves getting to you with the cash. Leave town...

DDoug · Jan 15, 2018

It will make a wonderful noise as it crashes into the accordion
and the bagpipes in the dumpster.....

SigurdACVW · Jan 15, 2018

As the husband of a piano teacher and a musician myself, it depends. We were able to get a decent price for of my wife's two(!) pianos from the parents of a little girl who really wanted one and had the means. Past that, good luck. It really depends.

1) start by advertising with a dollar amount
2) advertise for free
3) scrap it, unfortunately

JRIowa · Jan 15, 2018

Go onto the BP section and find someone to CNC it for you. Other than that, just as others said worth nothing. They're even difficult to take appart. I know!
JR

Larry Dickman · Jan 15, 2018

I had a piano my folks bought in the early sixties. I was moving and didn't feel like lugging it around with me anymore so I consigned it to a piano store. Took about 9 months, but I got around a grand for it. But, it there still any such thing as a piano store?

Or, try this;

SSI's "Shredding a Piano" - (WIDESCREEN VERSION) - YouTube

Chip Chester · Jan 15, 2018

Always best if it stays useful as a piano. But if it cannot live on as a piano, you could (carefully) harvest the wire out of it, sell the ivory and ebony (if that's legal) to piano repair techs -- probably the most lucrative bits -- and strip out the key mechanisms and casting. Once all that is done, re-purpose the carcass to be a computer desk housing your big-ass pair of CAD monitors. New desk surface, move the front cover to back of cabinet (inside) where casting used to be, or place it on back of piano and use as room divider. Or make it a big fishtank. It would be a shame, of course, but better to save some if you can't save all.

Chip

Big B · Jan 15, 2018

Does it still sound good? My parents had one that was about half that age, not as tall and a lot easier to move. Last time someone came out to tune it they said it was on it's last legs so to speak. Some family member kept the bench and a couple of pieces of the wood and the rest went in to my brothers wood stove. Mom has a much newer nicer one to replace it.

It did kind of break my heart to think of all the years of listening to my mom play that piano and have it end up in a wood burner but better there than a landfill.

Danny VanVoorn · Jan 15, 2018

Dis assembly is easy, I watched my brother break one up with a sledge hammer. We didn't know how else to get it out of there, that piano might have been installed before the basement was finished? Now the mess will take a while to clean up, it's amazing how far the pieces go when they break.
Dan

JS · Jan 15, 2018

I'll have to get back to you.

Gonna call a few people over in NE, to see if they have a use for it....

swellwelder · Jan 15, 2018

nobody else mentioned it so I will. We had a piano, granted in uglier condition, that we loaded into the back of a pickup, drove to a seldom used gravel road, got the pickup up to 60 mph and kicked the piano out! It stayed on its little wheels for a few seconds, then one corner dug into the gravel surface and it flipped up in the air about 15-20 ft came crashing down into a million pieces except the sounding board? which slid into the ditch.
Sure do wish we would have gotten it on film!

Dale

Fabworks · Jan 15, 2018

Build yourself a trebuchet and give the piano a toss.

Bad Neighbor piano throw - YouTube

Milland · Jan 15, 2018

Bush & Gerts – Antique Piano Shop Perhaps it actually has some value?

If not, I like the idea of a gut and repurpose - it would make a great liquor cabinet, home entertainment hutch, china and cookware storage, clothes dresser, or ?

Both my grandparents homes had pianos, I guess that type of family entertainment is well in the past now...

henrya · Jan 15, 2018

That is really pretty. Seems a shame to scrap it. After school music program? Family with no money but kid who might play it? Amateur theater group?

OT What to do with a gorgous upright piano?

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