Choosing your 1st piano
FREE PIANO ALERTS
Courtesy of Cordogan's Pianos
SOUNDBOARD CRACKS
Cracks in the soundboard don't mean it's a Basket Case. In fact, cracked soundboards CAN mean that the soundboard has maintained its curved nature (which is a good thing since the curvature or "crown" helps to project sound) but its lifelong desire to flatten out has caused a crack. Nonetheless, cracks are usually not a good thing, especially when the cracks have s
eparated from the ribs, and no attempt to repair it has been made. This causes a buzzing sound when certain notes are pressed. Whether or not the cracks are detrimental to the piano can determined by a skilled technician.
HAMMER GROVES MIS-ALIGNED
Hammers develop grooves where they have continually struck the strings...for years or even decades. Buying a used piano doesn't mean you should buy other people's grooves.
Notice how the grooves indicate that some of the hammers haven't even been striking all three strings! This isn't something that happened overnight. It's likely been this way since the piano was new. The dealer obviously never regulated the piano's hammer strike before it went to the home. When dealers send new pianos to homes "out of the box", countless problems like this can occur and they only get worse with time.
Part of a thorough restoration process involves hammer reshaping, spacing, alignment and voicing (texture adjustments). They also need to be "traveled", which involves seeing to it that they maintain the same distance from each other all the way up to the point when they reach the strings. All of this takes several hours to several DAYS if the hammers need major help -- like this one. At $100/hr. for skilled work of this nature, this represents Money Pit Example #1.
CRACKED BRIDGE
It doesn't take a college degree to determine this is a painful injury, but bridges are located in areas that are inaccessible to piano buyers. Even if the case parts can be removed, there are parts of the bridge that can't be seen without reflective mirrors and other tools. This crack turned itself in without a fight.
Given how much tension piano strings place on those poor little bridge pins, it's not surprising that bridge cracks are fairly common. It doesn't mean you want them though. Bridges can be repaired...at a cost, and one like this is a long, expensive trip to the orthodontist. Money Pit Example #3.
DRIVEN TUNING PINS
Tuning pins are really just big screws with strange heads and hundreds of tight little threads that you can't see. They're driven through the iron frame into a piece of wood (that you also can't see) called a pin block.
Tunings pins and the pin block into which they are driven are responsible for maintaining up to 20 TONS of relentless pressure...for decades. With age and/or environmental abuse, the pin block eventually deteriorates, preventing the tuning pins from holding the proper tension. Claims of "It's never been used" by the owner really have little or NO bearing on the piano's ability to hold a tune. In fact, such statements also usually mean it's never been tuned. And THAT'S not good either.
When tuning pins become loose, they can either exist with no visible signs of being loose, or they can be driven in by a technician to grip more of the pin block -- like you see here. Notice how the two circled pins are deeply seated into the iron frame? In the event they're still loose or again become loose, there's nowhere for them to go now. More importantly, others pins will likely soon join their neighbors in pursuit of fresh wood. This represents Money Pit Example #2.
CRACKED PIN BLOCK
This is the most elusive henchman of Basket Cases. As mentioned earlier, pin blocks are rarely visible. There is actually no piano that has ever been made where the complete pin block IS visible.
This picture shows a glimpse of the pin block's top view. It is visible because we tore the factory-glued felt away from the pin block to catch a look at it. There's a sure way to be removed from a home or showroom! This confirmed our suspicion why certain tuning pins were much looser than others. The pin block is riddled with these cracks. While this one only went through one of the block's laminations, it is suspected that others which could not be viewed penetrated several or all laminations.
This represents a complete fatality. The piano will never hold a tune again. Pin block replacement is really only an option in grand pianos, since the eventual resale value of a grand will likely allow for a multi-thousand dollar repair (like a replaced pin block). Money Pit Example #4.
There is only one atrocity worse than a cracked pin block, and that's a cracked plate. When there's a crack in the plate, you also have a potentially dangerous situation if it is in a strut. Pianos with cracked plates can actually explode. This is EXTREMELY RARE, but it can happen and has happened. Click the link above for a picture.
With up to 60,000 lbs. of pressure being stretched across its cast iron plate, a crack in the strut of an iron plate significantly weakens the frame. That pressure wants to go somewhere. After all, it's the pressure that caused the crack in the first place. A piano with a cracked plate should immediately have the string tension released and should be permanently relieved of its duties. It poses no danger as long as there is no tension on the strings.
