Like most families we have an old piano, maybe 50 years old, we got from someone. The kids had lessons on it for a few years but now it just sits in the corner.
Thing is how and when do people get rid of pianos? I never see them on a curb. Mostly people just sell or give them away. Obviously they sell new ones all the time.
So I’d like to ask, has anyone ever actually thrown out an old piano?
I sold an old piano when I moved and didn’t have room for it.
Later, when I bought the house I have now (20-some years ago), I bought an old piano from a woman who took old junkers that people threw out and restored them. She did good work. It’s a nice piano.
So, at least some of those that are tossed out get fixed and re-homed.
I’ve also seen quite a few old freebies on craigslist. I can’t imagine literally throwing one out around here since I don’t think the trash folks can take it, but put an ad on craigslist for free and someone will come get it. Saves you the cost of having it hauled away somewhere.
There are literally thousands of organizations who will take your old piano and put it to use. Here is one of many. There’s no reason to throw out an old piano.
A scout camp by where I used to live also ran team-building type camps for adults, which included a speed piano smashing competition. That was where a lot of the city’s old pianos eventually wound up, when they truly weren’t worth fixing.
I’m not sure I’d agree with “most.”
Perhaps you’re not seeing them on the curb because the piano movers take them directly to the transfer stations. That’s the fate of many older pianos according to this five-year-old article. It says that the movers try to find new homes for the pianos, but there aren’t enough places that need pianos compared to the number being thrown out.
Similarly, my parents are elderly now and we’re contemplating what to do with a house full of stuff, like old legal textbooks, other books, china, vinyl records, etc., that seems like it should be able to find a home. But the sad fact is that no one wants much of this stuff.
Nowhere of note.
Out to the Country, to live on a farm, & chase rabbits.
When my mother moved out a couple of years ago she had a hard time giving her piano away. It was a fairly high quality upright that she kept tuned, not some piece of junk. There are electronic keyboards now, and a glut of used pianos, if you put enough effort into someone will take it, but it takes time and money to move a piano. If you have a Steinway you won’t have problems finding takers, for your average home piano it may take some time to find someone who wants it and will go through the trouble of coming to get it.
Old pianos are thrown away all the time. Contrary to popular belief, even a well maintained piano will wear out over a number of decades. The primary failure mode is loss of soundboard crown from the massive downward pressure of the strings through the bridges. The result is poor acoustic coupling to the soundboard and dull, lifeless sound. Another common issue is cracking of soundboard or pinblock caused by repeated humidity cycles. In addition, the action parts wear out from use, causing a loss of control over the sound of the instrument.
The only fix for lost soundboard crown is to rebuild the piano. Piano rebuilding is an expensive process, last time I looked it was at least $15k if you did not refinish the piano case and the action was mostly salvageable. Very few pianos are worth the cost of rebuilding, usually only high-end grands like Steinway or Bosendorfer. Even fewer uprights are worth rebuilding, since they do not command the prices of a grand are are actually much harder to rebuild.
Add in the fact that far fewer people are buying pianos than they were 50 to 150 years ago, and those who do buy frequently get digital pianos which are easier to move and never need tuning, there is just not much demand for used pianos.
We gave ours to a local church …
I had considered getting a piano for many years. I’m thankful now that I didn’t.
I bought a $650 Casio Privia that includes built in metronome, records to a thumb drive and rhythm effects. It weighs 14 lbs.
$1600 will buy a digital piano that even serious musicians can enjoy playing. (You get a better keyboard with weighted keys in this price point)
I’d never buy a 400 lb Acoustic piano that requires regular professional tuning.
I had an old guitar that I donated to a music charity. They take school band instruments, Guitars, basses. Maybe digital keyboards? I doubt they want a Acoustic piano.
Acoustic pianos do have a warmer sound and are wonderful in concert halls.
I grew up on a college campus, and the frats and other outfits would have those all the time. The winner was the one who took the shortest time to smash the pieces small enough to fit through a metal hoop a foot or so across.
The Simpsons paid homage to that in the episode where Marge entered a bodybuilding contest. One of her opponents in the talent competition picked up a piano, exhorted, “Support the arts!”, and dashed it to pieces.
One of my favorite scenes from Northern Exposure was when Chris, as a piece of performance art, launched one from a trebuchet.
The entire town came out to watch. The sound on landing was magnificent.
The guy who bought my grandmother’s house threw out the piano that was in one of the bedrooms. If I remember correctly, there wasn’t enough resale value to justify the cost of taking it out of the house intact. It had been built into one of the bedrooms and didn’t fit through the door.
Heh.
A good friend of mine has the cast iron(?) back/string board(?) of one in her garage. It’s very, very heavy. She’s going to do artsy things with it.
My grandmother had a beautiful grand player piano that once belonged to Al Capone (seriously, my grandfather bought it at auction in Chicago along with lots of his other things in the 50’s). I have no idea where that thing is now even though it is probably worth a lot of money. My aunt may still have it at one of her houses that I have never been to but I shudder to think about the effort it would take to move something like that from Illinois to Louisiana and then to Arkansas and to Colorado. The “player” part of the player piano broke and my grandmother had to fly in a very old piano expert to fix it because no one else knew how to and that was 25 years ago. No thanks for me. You can leave me out of the will for that one and just give me cash. I will even take 50% off.
It is obvious that pianos are being destroyed because not that many people have them these days and those that exist are almost never used or just conversation pieces. I don’t know where they go to die but it is probably the same place as old billard tables or other, large and really heavy things.
The Boston area has a company that specializes in moving really large and heavy objects called “Death Wish Piano Movers” so someone has them but they don’t just move pianos. I can’t imagine trying to get one into a 3rd floor walk-up brownstone on Commonwealth Avenue but they can do it somehow. That is the job of my nightmares.
Where do the old pianos go?
The Great Gig In The Sky.
Seriously though, most town around here have heavy waste collection days for unusually large objects. There are many things people need to get rid of that are as large or large than any piano. You have to get it out of your house on your own and may have to pay someone to haul it off but dumpsters and landfills can handle any sized object. Whole houses and buildings get destroyed by storms and there are companies that can get rid of the debris completely in a matter of days. A single piano is nothing if you don’t care what happens to it.