Said William50 in last night's "Snow Car" café.
He was referring to something I said in passing in an earlier post — that I had looked up "Flatter!," because it was part of an image on a card that I found in the piano bench, which I was emptying out because I'm getting rid of the piano.
Breaking up a piano made me think about this great 80s video where they destroy a piano:
And since you mentioned the harp inside, we must remember when Harpo Marx went nuts on a piano and extracted the harp:
But here's how I responded to William50 (who may not have noticed that I'd already revealed in the comments on the other post that I am paying a professional piano dealer to move the piano out of our house and to dispose of it properly):
Meade suggested doing something like [what you did]. I see multiple reasons to prefer to pay a reputable piano dealer $360 to swiftly spirit the whole hulk out of the house.
1. It's a lot of work taking the thing [apart] and lugging it [out to] the street, consuming time and effort and possibly resulting in injury to yourself and damage to doorjambs and floors.
2. It would sit out there on the terrace for all to see and to find ugly and offensively wasteful.
3. It will burden the city -- and the taxpayers -- to need to pick up these pieces and carry them away.
4. The reputable piano dealer is experience[d] in disposing of pianos and may find an actual home for the intact piano.
5. The piano will sit in its usual place, unmolested, until professionals come in and skillfully remove it in one piece. This is a company I have used 3 or 4 times in the past to move this piano from room to room, and I [trust] them to do it well.
6. I like supporting a good local business! They deserve to be paid for the work that they do. You don't have to use your own labor just because you (or your partner) can perform labor. We're doing a lot of painting this winter, putting labor into that, but if I had a local business I trusted to do this work well and without needing to spend too much time in our house, I would be glad to pay someone.
7. $360 may sound like a lot, especially if you believe your beautiful piano should be worth at least $5,000, but I choose to live in the real world, where prices are determined by supply and demand. Accept reality and make your time living in it as good as you can. Maybe you enjoyed sledgehammering a piano. I hope you did!
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50 comments:
Just drop it out a window. Funnier that way.
In that Art of Noise video, the only person without any eye protection during the demolition of the piano is the little person whose face is closest to the danger zone created by the reckless use of the tools.
Children no longer learn to play the piano. Instead, they play with video game or smart phones and learn nothing.
Every house should have a piano. It’s not just a musical instrument, it’s a piece of furniture. Further it’s a symbol of desire of self-betterment. Most importantly, it’s a celebration of the cognitive brain for the piano is truly an instrument which unites music production to music theory. The guitar, violin, and all such stringed instruments hide the hidden algorithms of music in their slender, beguiling necks. But the piano lays out the keys and chords and mathematical underpinnings of music in a child’s book portrait of structure and sequence. The keyboard is a black and white abacus of the twelve pitches of music. An old upright piano may be tired and impossible to keep tuned but it is worth keeping every time.
Long live the piano! Long live the cognitive mind of humanity! Long live the Enlightenment!
Just thought it might be a nice break from watching paint dry.
Several decades ago my high school daughter scored a beat and ragged piano from her high school for free. All she had to do was lug it away. We went to her school with my pick up truck where several at hand football players loaded it onto the pick up bed. I lightly secured it with rope and off we went along the back roads to home. Several blocks from home I intentionally took a corner a tad to sharply and the 3/4 spinner went ass over tea kettle onto road. Thousands of pieces and piano parts everywhere. My daughter was distraught. I was relieved - emotionally and financially not having to spend a small fortune bringing a beat piano back to life. I called the city who immediately dispatched a clean up crew. We then went to a big box store and purchased a $100 Yamaha electric piano and a set of headphones.
When we moved our upright piano to our new house, me and my friends moved it. We dropped it at one point, so it was never in tune again after that. It became a sculpture.
When we sold the house we had a junk man take the piano. The one dude almost single handedly moved it.
I've an upright piano made in 1941. Mahogany. Its (ivory) keys are falling off (I save them). I still play it though. It could use a tuning.
I tell myself I'll buy a keyboard and play around with that. But I've not yet even gone out and priced things. But a no-piano house would be a lot roomier (at least it's not a grand)
Call a piano mover. Move it to a park or something.
A lot of what I do around the house and yard could be hired out. But "idle hands are the devil's workshop" and there is a certain satisfaction in figuring out and accomplishing a job. Of course, there was that time I damn near cut my finger off doing a curve cut on a new back gate (it looked easy on the youtube I consulted).
My neighbor recently had some tree work done, and I offered the guy working the chipper $50 if he would run my old tube TV through the machine. He was intrigued, but he turned me down.
I like to restore things. So when I see a player piano in the Pennysaver advertised for free, I jump at the chance. Elderly lady owns it and keeps it in a storage facility. We meet at the storage facility. Of course it doesn't work, bellows are shot. I am handy *cough*. It's brush painted powder blue. OK, again no problem. I'll get it stripped. After all, it's free. She then tells it weighs 800#'s. Unknown to me, there is a large slab of cast iron inside. Ok, no problem again. I call a tilt-bed tow truck who rolls it up onto his tow truck ($100). We then roll it into my cube van. Off to Amish for stripping. Six Amish guys unload it. $200 for stripping. It is an 1800's Farrington, New York piano. Gorgeous. I take it my warehouse and heft it off with my forklift. It sits for several years, beautiful but unrepaired.
Tired of looking at it, I try to sell it. No takers. I called an antique music store. Nope. I find a guy that restores player pianos. Nope, he has too many.
The wood is beautiful black walnut. My next hairbrained scheme surfaces. I'll tear it apart and sell the wood to an Amish furniture maker. When I take the wood pieces to him, he tells me the wood is veneer, not solid black walnut. He can't use it. Discouraged, I tell him to burn it and haul the metal, strings and all to the scrap yard for junk. End of story.
Have the piano moved to where the racist rock was.
Our piano is the nicest piece of furniture in the house, the one thing that says unequivocally that adults live there.
When I researched buying my piano, I learned something--"antique" is not a selling point. Old pianos are pretty much worthless because they can't hold a tuning. People try to "give them away" as a way to avoid the hauling charge of disposing of it properly. They try to pretend they are freecycling, but really they're just burdening someone else with their problem.
We have an old 1930s piano that originally belonged to a church and ended up in a farmer's barn. He gave it to us about 25 years ago and my sons and their friends helped move it to our house. My sons played on it some, but my grandson has taught himself to play the piano pretty well on that old piece of history. My d-i-l plays the piano herself and helped him learn to read music, but he basically taught himself to play. One of the granddaughters is taking an interest as well. We have the room for it and they enjoy the instrument so here it will stay.
We have an old 1930s piano that originally belonged to a church and ended up in a farmer's barn. He gave it to us about 25 years ago and my sons and their friends helped move it to our house. My sons played on it some, but my grandson has taught himself to play the piano pretty well on that old piece of history. My d-i-l plays the piano herself and helped him learn to read music, but he basically taught himself to play. One of the granddaughters is taking an interest as well. We have the room for it and they enjoy the instrument so here it will stay.
I have a friend who is moving soon and wants to donate his Steinway.
I would take it but we already have a piano (not as fancy) that my wife likes...
There are so many useless "upright grands" in people's basements that the piano movers spend most their time picking up and disposing them.
Bloody awful things to play usually.
I actually had fun taking it apart. I was curious just how everything worked and was surprised how simple the mechanisms were. The hardest part was getting the harp out, it was extremely heavy.
Wife bought a Steinway upright 20 years ago. It's a beautiful instrument with amazing sound. She has it tuned annually and plays it about as often (oldest child was the real player and she's 25 now), but she never part with it unless the player-child asks for it. Maybe wife will play again regularly someday. Right now it holds the 8x12 senior class photos of the kids. Music and children together. Not difficult to figure out what's important to her.
Our neighbor took ours -- a spinet.
1. He needed one -- as much as anyone really needs one.
2. He knew a piano mover.
3. He lived next door.
4. No steps were involved.
5. It fit through our front door.
6. It fit through his front door.
He was happy. We were thrilled!
Now ... about the pool table ...
I used to have a neighbor (well, he lived on the adjacent parcel in a cluster of decaying vans, mobile homes and shipping containers) who would pay $50 for any working piano delivered to him. He had a huge collection. I think I brought him 3 or 4 over the years. Easy enough money for a poor person with a truck and trailer and no job.
We recently got rid of a nice upright piano which we don't play. Similar to Old and slow above, there's a small business that takes away items and gives them to needy families. They took the piano and gave it to someone who wants one and cannot afford it. Even upright pianos ain't cheap.
Now ... about the pool table ...
Haha…we recently had to move a pool table from the middle of a room to the side, about 10 feet across the floor (had to access the ceiling above for repairs of ductwork.)
Hubs figured that he and our young adult son could easily handle it. They called me down to slip felt sliders under the feet, and then found that they couldn’t even lift a corner of it enough for me to get those in place.
Next idea was for the two of them to use lifting straps (again, just trying to hoist it about 3/4 inch off the ground.) Nope. Still too heavy.
We considered a car jack but couldn’t figure out a way to płace it. Finally my husband got a pry bar to lift and I was (barely) able to get the sliders placed and moved the beastly thing. Now i understand why it was delivered in pieces.
rhhardin said...
“Have the piano moved to where the racist rock was.”
I like it! Step 2: post to social media that someone somewhere once referred to it as “the French piano.” Step 3: PROFIT!!!
Am I the only one here with Art of Noise in multiple spotify playlists?
Bought a baby grand from an opera company's practice room.
Got it the exact day the Marines found Saddam Hussein in his dirt hole.
A great day all around.
I bang on it every time the house is empty; it pleases me.
My daughter really took to it; became a badass singer/writer/performer.
Smart solution Professor.
The electronic keyboards have gotten so good and cheap, the standard piano is finding it hard to compete, even on the used market.
In my highly desirable suburb, home to a wonderful array of services, the city sends a large truck around the neighborhood once a month or so. Anything you put out on the curb that isn't hazardous or combustible will be picked up. If I hauled a piano out there, I'm pretty sure they would take it. That is, if the scavengers don't take it first. There are Hispanic guys who comb the 'hood before the city truck arrives, looking for things they can fix/sell/repurpose. Lots of stuff saved from a trip to the landfill.
"If I hauled a piano out there, I'm pretty sure they would take it."
You would not be able to haul my piano to the curb. It takes 2 strong men and special equipment just to get it to the stoop, and from there it's 3 steps down. I'd pay $360 just to get it to the curb. Anyone wanting to just take it would need special equipment. And I bet anyone with special equipment knows that a piano has negative value. So why would they take it?
It's easy to imagine other things to do, but I'm not in the realm of the imaginary. I'm in a real situation with a real piano.
On one episode of "Northern Exposure" Chris flung Maggie's fire-damaged piano with a trebuchet. Cool.
Do "old pianos" really not hold their tuning? We have a late-40s mahogany Bechstein baby grand, and it seems to hold a tuning reasonably well (my husband has learned to tune it himself, not perfectly but reasonably close, and when it gets badly out of true, we hire a professional tuner).
Downstairs in my husband's studio there's a spinet, left by the house's previous owners. Now that is a bear to tune, but in practice he mainly uses it to give students tuning pitches.
"I'm not in the realm of the imaginary. I'm in a real situation with a real piano."
What did you do, build the house around the piano? I'd say you're looking at the sledgehammer-and-chainsaw solution.
For good pianos try selling on REVERB. As a fan of the Hammond B3/Leslie sounds of Earl Grant and Stevie Winwood I became obsessed. Theatre organs are hard to give away as well.
For the pipe organ addicted there's... http://www.blockmrecords.org/
As Bach would have heard.
They aren't all that heavy or difficult to move if you've any experience moving things. Now, moving an old lathe or milling machine can be tricky...
About a year ago we moved my mother-in-law's piano from her house to ours since she never played it, and my father-in-law can no longer play it. The piano movers that we used said they move a bunch and had a few they kept in storage in case they heard of anyone that wanted a piano, they even had a few baby grands but they didn't want to get rid of them! Had I know that I would have taken a baby grand, but the one we did get has sentimental value since my MIL bought it and my husband took piano lessons on it.
My parents plan on selling theirs with the house when they leave!
Pianos!!
Have you tried getting rid of a pool table? It’s a scam. You give the table away, and the new table owner is told by the pool table moving company that it needs new bumpers, and felt. They charge the new owner around $1,000. The moving company takes my resell value.
Although, I do appreciate the additional floor space in the TV room.
A person I know is a full time farmer, part time musician. He has a great way to dispose of an old piano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqg7XNvq1Vk
Speaking of stoops, you could have called The Laurel and Hardy Transfer Co.
That video took me back a ways--I think I saw it only once, on MTV. It was redeemed by the late appearance of the wiener dog (as so many things are).
A YUGE proportion of American publishing in the period 1850-1920 or so was of sheet music to supply the myriad demands of American middle class home and amateur musicians.
I am not encouraged by this. I need to dispose of my Mom’s piano, which is ordinary and neglected. The great grandkids she promised it to are no longer interested.
My wife plays piano, and loves it. I don't play, but I love it when she does: It has become the soundtrack of our lives. For her 40th birthday, I bought her a Yamaha C3 "baby" grand -- we had the space in our house, it's a lovely piano, and she was thrilled. It was the price of a lightly-used second car, but the agreed-upon deal was that I would never have to buy her another birthday gift. Ever.
So: No more agonizing over last-minute gifts, trying to decide which restaurant to go to, wondering if I've bought "enough"... The piano is the best deal I've ever made. And she just turned sixty, and she's still playing it. And, she thinks it's the best deal she ever made, too.
Of course, I still do special things for her birthday. I'm not an idiot.
When I was in the college, the science building auditorium had an ancient Steinway grand piano. It was in terrible condition, which was really sad because it was probably magnificent the day it rolled out of the Steinway factory.
Art of noise: big fan, here, big fan. That is all.
stoop. Spelled, stoep. Or so my mother always said.
Old and slow said...
"They aren't all that heavy or difficult to move if you've any experience moving things. Now, moving an old lathe or milling machine can be tricky.."
I'd rather move machinery, They don't dent as easily.
I hope your dealer finds a home for the piano.
Pump organs are also of zero value. Mom had one that was originally delivered by horse and buggy to her great grandparents in the late 1800's. When mom passed, none of us sibs wanted it, even though it still worked and was in phenomenal condition. We couldn't give it away.
We spent a lifetime believing it a valuable and rare jewel. Turns out that most families of means had one and they all treated theirs the same way.
I remember reading an article in my local newspaper, The Charlotte Observer, about a NC man who restored/repaired pianos, and he was basically unable to make a living at it any more - -he had a warehouse full of used pianos that he said he would never sell, and wouldn't even accept pianos free from those wishing to get rid of them.
Nobody could move a piano like Jerry Lee Lewis could move a piano.
Mom is insisting on piano lessons for our four grand kids. The three boys, 13 and 11 are starting to fight back. I asked one of them if he knew that being able to knoodle around on a piano would make him the most popular boy at any party. Not interested. But if my granddad had offered the same advice, I would have ignored him too.
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