An Improbable Find

This is one of those times when I look back on what I was doing a week ago and how little I knew about what the next few days would bring.

 

 

Last Wednesday, I was considering calling my mom to tell her how something we'd previously discussed had turned out. I saw that she was on Facebook, so I knew she would answer the phone. She told me she had just found something rather interesting at the Goodwill.

My mom has serious thrift-store skills. She knows how to distinguish quality from junk. She seems to be able to locate anything any of us mention we need, given the time. She knows which stores yield great finds regularly and which have the best furniture, best toys, etc. She was prowling a Goodwill store in Tucson last week, and there it was- a grand piano.

 

WHAT is a grand piano doing at the thrift store???

 

That was what we had to figure out, because nice pianos are not found in thrift stores, generally speaking. My mom had never seen a piano of any kind at any thrift store. She wasn't interested in it herself, but wondered if any of her kids would want it.

 

 

We have never been in the market for a grand piano. For one thing, they cost WAY too much. For another, they're rather large and don't fit just anywhere. This is not to say I haven't drooled (not literally, that's bad for pianos!) over the grand pianos at the music store. But I had long ago accepted that such a purchase would be decades away, if it ever happened at all.

 

 

But now, there was this grand piano without the grand price tag. At first, I just assumed the piano wouldn't even fit in the house. But we already had a piano, the removal of which would free up some wall and floor space and offset the cost of a replacement.

 

 

But there was still the issue of the piano's condition, which is not a small thing. We are all well aware of the liability something can become if there are serious problems. Owning a crummy piano could be likened to owning a car that's a lemon. My dad, who has an eye for both musical instruments and woodwork, went to see the piano to give it an objective evaluation. The brand and serial number were easily visible. Using those, my husband and my parents were able to determine a few things: The piano was made by a company (Starr) that produced well-regarded instruments in Indiana in the 1800s and the first part of the 1900s. This particular piano was built in 1913, which means in about 15 months, it will officially be an antique. Of course, "antique" makes something sound valuable when all it should be called is "really, really old." With musical instruments, the designation can be very good or very bad. This piano has obviously been restored and maintained for most of its existence, because nothing about its appearance indicates its age. There are no keys missing and the keys are all level. A few key tops are chipped, but only slightly. There are no major cracks to render the soundboard useless, as determined by a friend of ours who used to service pianos.

 

 

Is it out of tune? Heck, yes. Any piano would be after being moved anyway. Is the interior immaculately clean? No way. Is the finish flawless? No. There is exterior damage in a couple of places and some small dings here and there, but I will say that its exterior looks way better than a few grand pianos I've played on stages over the years- pianos at schools and universities that get moved around a lot, but are well-maintained otherwise. So, yes, there is work to be done, but its most sour notes are on the low and high ends (the keys that don't get used as much) and it is playable as it is. Plus, we're not shy about a project! So why was the piano at Goodwill? We'll never know exactly, but the theory is that someone got stuck with someone else's estate and didn't want to bother with the necessary steps to make the piano marketable.

 

 

We thought hard about this one and decided to take a chance on it. Logistically, getting the piano from Tucson to Phoenix was a puzzle. A lot of people contributed to the effort on both ends and it turned into almost an all-day job last Saturday after all the planning. It was well after 10 p.m. when the job was finished. I didn't see how the loading went in Tucson, but I got a few pictures once the piano was taken off the truck at our house.

The front door was a big challenge.

These guys had to lift the piano once it had its legs re-attached. If you ever move a grand piano, get at LEAST five people to do it, unless you keep the company of Olympic weightlifters, in which case you MIGHT get away with three.

It's a bit surreal to walk into our living room and see it sitting there!

So that's how we came to own a grand piano.