Choosing to Condemn

[Clyde Hollinger]

Friends,

Which criteria do you use when deciding to condemn a piano?  I always find this difficult, sometimes more difficult than others.  If I see the piano for the first time and it's 70+ years old, neglected for decades, shows terrific wear, bridle straps are mostly gone, wildly out of tune, several keys don't work, brass rail action and all
beat up, then it's not as hard for me to say it's just not worth putting any more money into it.

But I condemned a piano yesterday (1907 Lester upright) that I've been servicing for eighteen years, back when I was starting in the business and would take on anything.  Often the middle-aged mother would tell me how she loved the piano.  It was pretty terrible to start with, since the now deceased piano technician did some weird
things like gluing in several new hammers at strange angles and using twine for bridle straps.

Only the kids were home when I got there, so I didn't really tell her I condemned the piano.  I don't think I would have been able to; she was a voice student of mine back in 1975 when I taught high school.  Rather, I wrote on the invoice, "I recommend replacing the piano.  You may want to get a second opinion."

I still second-guess a condemnation I did on another old upright about a year ago.  The old grandmother lives with her daughter and still plays the piano.  It wasn't worth putting any money into, and I told them so.  Even trying to give it a rudimentary tuning was asking for trouble.  But I'm 99% sure that, given Grandma's age, they
will not replace the piano.  She will just do the best she can with it for the rest of her years.  Sad.

Thoughts for softies like me (other than "get over it!")?

Regards,
Clyde

Terry Farrell wrote:

> ... There are some baaaaaad pianos in this world my friend. And they never die......they just slowly disintegrate. And I think they approach the end asymptotically. The number of years they exist in an advanced state of wear and still get plunked every once in a while far exceeds the number of musical years.  Condemned two pianos
> today....