For Marcel
- Thread starter Sambr
- Start date
Well, it's only a piano remnant. I'm sure it doesn't play a sound anymore. It makes me feel good when I see this. At least the left-over is like a sculpture outside. But it won't last for long as the veneer will just fall-off. Pianos are not eternal and I'd rather see them die than kept alive on artificial respirator.
Cowboybillybob1
Senior Member
Having been a semi-pro musician when I see an old broken down instrument I think about who owned it. What kind of music was played on it. Is it's near death a happy or sad thing? Sometimes I feel like I can hear what it sounded like and the stories it could tell.
I guess I am just a mushy romantic. Do you have any other pics of this piano?
I guess I am just a mushy romantic. Do you have any other pics of this piano?
I quite understand what you wrote Paul and I have to deal with these feeling almost every week. As a piano technician (35 years), I see pianos that are beyond repairs. Specially those old pianos like the one in the picture taken by Sam. This piano was built over one hundred years ago when the full cast iron plate was not the practice yet.
You have to remember that a tuned piano has to resist about a 20 tons tension by the 230 strings. And with our canadian winter, the wood supporting the soundboard and all this tension will give away, cracks appear in the soundboard and the pin-block making the tuning impossible.
Now as much as I can understand about the grand mother who used to play the piano and the person remembers the happy moments spent around the piano, it just died like the lovely grand mother did. I sometimes ask people if they kept the car they learned driving when their grand dad teached them. It's part of life that everything has an end, and pianos are no exception.
But if pianos could talk to tell their stories, we'd probably be restoring more of them. The only pianos that are worth restoring are usually grand pianos that would cost more to buy than restore. There has to be a financial incentive.