Piano Buying Guide
by Absolute Piano
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When Buying a Used Acoustic Piano.
--- Simple buying guide for a used piano from individuals --
During recession, more people are purchasing a piano from individuals (Craig’s List, E-bay etc) in hopes to save money. If you buy a piano from a store, you will get a warranty, which you will not get from a private seller.
It is important to hire a technician but it is not practical if you are looking at several pianos. We wrote 7 helpful tips you can easily check yourself.
The piano is complicated instruments with mixed materials. This check list has items that you should look even before hiring a technician.
6. Soundboard and Bridges
1. Age of the piano
Age of the piano is important and one of indicators of the piano. Usually, old pianos need repairs after the purchase. We don’t recommending buying a piano 30 years or older from a individual. Often pianos will have a major problems around this age, such as hard hammers, loose tuning pins and sluggish action.
To determine the age of the piano, you need 
a serial number, which is located inside the piano or back of the piano. You may call us with the name of brand and serial number to find out it’s age. You may check “blue book of the pianos” online or you can purcahse "The Piano Book" from Amazon.com or BN.com. You can find major manufactures’ serial number lists.
www.bluebookofpianos.com
2. Physical location of the piano
To move the piano will cost you easily $150 and often more. If the seller’s apartment is on the 5th floor and does not have an elevator, you could cost you over $500! Ask the seller if the piano is in a walk up building if the piano not located on the ground floor.
Free Quote for Moving:
http://absolutepianony.com/moving.aspx
3. Case & Parts
This is easy, look at the finish of the piano and see if there are any obvious scratches or damages on the case. (Any missing legs, music desk, bench etc.) Open up the top and see inside to look any missing parts. Play each note and note to find any dysfunction. Remember, that refinishing and repairs can be expensive.
4.Bug infestation
Check for any obvious signs of mice or roaches in the piano. Mice can eat the felts in the piano. And roaches will lay eggs which you will be transferring to you home with the piano. Open the kickboard and check for any droppings. Yuck!
5. Mechanism (action)
A main task of a mechanism is simple: when you press the key it activates the hammer to strike the string to produce a sound. It is important that all the components (there are hundreds of parts) that make this happen are working as they should. When you look into the inside of the piano you will most likely see the hammers first. They range from size of small teaspoon to tablespoon pieces of felt. Look at the hammers, they should be a teardrop shape with small indentations on them. This is caused by the strings as the piano is played. Deep grooves in the felt 1/8” or more means that the piano was used a lot.
6. Soundboard and bridges
Soundboard amplifies the sound of the piano and is the most misunderstood part of the piano. We often hear that the soundboard is cracked and the piano is now worthless! Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact there are many pianos in daily use and fully functioning with cracks in the soundboard. In most cases the crack is just a cosmetic flaw where the soundboard has separated from a previously glued joint.
If the soundboard, however has separated from the bridges which pass the sound from the strings to the soundboard that is a serious and costly repair. To check the soundboard, bridge and string combo play each note and listen to any dead, dull or buzzing sound (a note that dies very quickly).
7. Pins and Pinblock
An average piano has over 220 tuning pins that are held tight by the pin block.
This is by far the most critical aspect of your impending purchase since piano that won’t hold a tune is a serious and costly problem. By far the best method to check the tuning stability is by an experienced technician using their tuning lever; however in choosing from many potential pianos it is not always practical and costly as well. What you can do is listen to the piano and hear if it is extremely out of tune in one area or another. Pianos that are not tuned for many years will go out of tune but should do so evenly throughout.
Thank you for reading our piano buying guide. If you have any questions, please contact us.