WDB
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 15:15:26 GMT
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Post by WDB on Sept 19, 2016 15:15:26 GMT
Not for the For Sale pages yet, if at all, but I've become responsible for two old but interesting pianos.
Piano 1 lives with us. It's a Bechstein upright, a straight-strung Model 10 from, we believe, 1910. It's sound and playable but badly in need of a tune, which our local tuner is afraid to do because he snapped a couple of strings the last time he tried. It cost us nothing to take on from a family friend, now deceased, who'd been paying to keep it in storage. Shiny, restored examples of this model are advertised by dealers for £2,500-£4,000, and I feel we owe it a little care.
Piano 2 is a bigger beast: my late father's 1893 Steinway Model A. 1.84m long and expensively reconditioned twice in the 42 years I've known it, it can no longer stay in the parental home now that is no longer home to either parent. Nor is there room for it in my house or my brother's; much as I'd love to have it, it's simply too big - physically and probably acoustically - for the one room we could dedicate to it.
So it has to go, probably to a dealer who will tune it, polish it and sell it for a five-digit sum, some of which we might get to spend on fettling (or replacing?) the Bechstein. Sad, but it's sadder that it's not made much music for 15 years, so it probably deserves a better home.
I suppose I wonder if anyone's had experiences with the piano trade that might be informative, but really I'm just writing to organize my own thoughts. Pianos are strange things: part furniture, part machine but with quite an emotional pull too. This might even spur me into a renewed effort to learn to play one properly.
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 15:21:30 GMT
Post by Humph on Sept 19, 2016 15:21:30 GMT
Grieg's concerto?
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Deleted
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 15:23:27 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2016 15:23:27 GMT
It won't be much use to you, but a few years ago we, er, 'needed' to get a piano for the children to learn on. Now with my own experience in my back pocket I told the wife they'd want to give up after a few years. So I recommended the £200 firewood someone was selling locally. Advice not taken, £3000 Yamaha piano purchased. Children now want to give up learning.
Eye roll smiley.
Flog 'em both - you'll never get much use.
Sorry to hear about your parents.
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WDB
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 15:33:19 GMT
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Post by WDB on Sept 19, 2016 15:33:19 GMT
The Bechstein is in daily use by one child and probably weekly by others of us. That's staying - or will be replaced by something more suitable.
One parent is still extant, but functioning at about 20 percent and now in permanent residential care. Getting old is a bugger, which may be why my dad didn't bother - although I still wish he had.
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WDB
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 15:44:21 GMT
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Post by WDB on Sept 19, 2016 15:44:21 GMT
The orchestra would be a tight fit in our front parlour, so I was thinking along the lines of Liszt's B minor Sonata. I've got the full ten fingers, so it ought to be doable, right? |
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 15:48:34 GMT
Post by Hofmeister on Sept 19, 2016 15:48:34 GMT
One parent is still extant, but functioning at about 20 percent and now in permanent residential care. Getting old is a bugger, which may be why my dad didn't bother - although I still wish he had. Tell me about it. Aged mother has gone from driving her own car in July, to a blathering wreck who berates me on every (daily) visit for divorcing her. (she now thinks I am my own father / Her Husband - a man who died 36 years ago) complains about her sisters sleeping habits in bed with her ( she died 20 years ago) and makes tinned peaches in cold coffee (i think its coffee) as a main meal. Has severe heart failure, and Vascular Demientia. Final Power of Attorney came through today, currently looking at a care agency coming in daily, and searching out care homes (1300 quid a week GULP!) |
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 16:17:38 GMT
Post by Humph on Sept 19, 2016 16:17:38 GMT
I feel for you both, my mother became really very difficult towards the end. You know they don't mean to be, and can't help it, but it does drag you down. A friend has his ( Alzheimer's suffering ) mother in residential care at a cost in excess of £50k a year which is being funded by the sale of her house. Obviously that will keep her bill paid for quite a while but if she rumbles on for a good few years it'll become a problem.
Can't really say anything useful other than platitudes about keeping chins up.
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Deleted
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 18:56:55 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2016 18:56:55 GMT
Steinway have a big operation in the centre of London, which includes refurbishing and selling second hand models. There was a series of programmes about companies with the Queens Warrant a few months ago, and one was about them. If the Steinway has to go, then maybe get in touch with them - if they don't want it, I am sure they can point you in the right direction. An 1893 model must have some historical value..
We have a Hopkinson Baby Grand at my parents house. Mum (now deceased) played many years ago and I tried in my early teens, but was too busy to practice. It just sits there now as my kids haven't the patience, so its get played every so often at a party in which we hire in a pianist. Last one was almost two years ago for my 50th. (My parents house is perfect for parties so we have them there). With Dad living most of the year overseas, I was tempted to see if it had any value, but it seems not.
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 19:26:09 GMT
Post by bromptonaut on Sept 19, 2016 19:26:09 GMT
Presumably you're sorting out claims for Attendance Allowance etc? |
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Deleted
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Sept 19, 2016 19:57:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2016 19:57:26 GMT
No. 2 is musical. There is a room.with violins, drum sets, God knows how many guitars, various blowy things, and a couple of keyboards.
I have the musical talent of a brick so I wouldn't know, but she informs me that there is no difference in mechanics and little difference in sound between an expensive electronic keyboard and a piano. So there is bugger all chance of one of those bloody lumps of wood cluttering up the place.
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 20:22:31 GMT
Post by Hofmeister on Sept 19, 2016 20:22:31 GMT
Presumably you're sorting out claims for Attendance Allowance etc? There is a 6 month pre qualifying period apparently, about Christmas will be time she (me as Attorney) can claim. |
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Avant
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Pianos
Sept 19, 2016 22:27:51 GMT
Post by Avant on Sept 19, 2016 22:27:51 GMT
Pianos can be a pain. Nobody wants them, unless they're a good make - which fortunately you've got, WdB. Would there be room in your house for a baby grand - i.e. sell both the Bechstein and the Steinway and use the proceeds to buy, say a good new Yamaha baby grand or an older one of a reputable make?
Sympathies - empathy indeed - to all re ancient parents. My father died at 80: we'd have liked him to have had a bit longer, but in the event it was better to go when he did than to be like my mother who is still there aged 99: almost totally blind and deaf and with advanced dementia, and has been in a care home like that for three years. In her younger days she ran the WRVS old people's welfare for Surrey and always said 'Don't let me be a batty old dear' (her words, not mine). And being Scottish she'd be horrified if she knew the care home fees, about £6,500 a month. There seems to be no end in sight - a totally pointless existence and the very last thing she wanted. herself.
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Deleted
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Pianos
Sept 20, 2016 8:24:37 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2016 8:24:37 GMT
One parent is still extant, but functioning at about 20 percent and now in permanent residential care. Getting old is a bugger, which may be why my dad didn't bother - although I still wish he had. Tell me about it. Aged mother has gone from driving her own car in July, to a blathering wreck who berates me on every (daily) visit for divorcing her. (she now thinks I am my own father / Her Husband - a man who died 36 years ago) complains about her sisters sleeping habits in bed with her ( she died 20 years ago) and makes tinned peaches in cold coffee (i think its coffee) as a main meal. Has severe heart failure, and Vascular Demientia. Final Power of Attorney came through today, currently looking at a care agency coming in daily, and searching out care homes (1300 quid a week GULP!) I had this experience aged about 15 when my moter had her grandmother move in with us. She rapidly decided that I was her husband (the Old Sod, to give him his full title), who had married bigamously and raised a second family for years without her knowing. They never divorced (Maltese Catholic) and he was still alive, the old bugger outlived her sadly in to his 90s. One night she came at me with a kitchen knife, that was the day Mum started looking for care homes..... |
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WDB
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Pianos
Sept 20, 2016 10:02:47 GMT
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Post by WDB on Sept 20, 2016 10:02:47 GMT
Would there be room in your house for a baby grand - i.e. sell both the Bechstein and the Steinway and use the proceeds to buy, say a good new Yamaha baby grand or an older one of a reputable make? Not really. We have one large room that isn't really suitable to become a music room. The smaller one, which is, accommodates the Bechstein comfortably enough, but anything grander - even baby-grander - would crowd it and be too loud for the space. Best solution is to sell the Steinway and to use some of the proceeds to get a thorough restoration job done on the Bechstein. I opened that up last night and it still seems to be in pretty good order. The expert consensus seems to be that these pianos take restoration well and should then be good for another 50 years or so. The restoration might cost as much as a modest new piano but that would leave us with a characterful, attractive instrument that will retain value over the next few decades. First step is to visit a couple of restorer-dealers and see how their restored instruments compare with ours. |
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Pianos
Sept 21, 2016 21:53:05 GMT
Post by bromptonaut on Sept 21, 2016 21:53:05 GMT
There is a 6 month pre qualifying period apparently, about Christmas will be time she (me as Attorney) can claim. Think hard about when she might first have qualified..... |
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