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My brother is in the process of selling his house and has a piano that has been determined to have a problem that would cost more to repair than it is worth. He has decided to dismember it to facilitate it's removal and I'm wondering what might I look for in the way of recylable parts and/or materials that may be of use for guitars? The piano in question is a McPhail baby grand made around '22 or '23. Any thoughts? TIA Darin Spayd39023.9462384259

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DES - Shepherd, MI

Ivory and ebony for sure. What's it made of? Could be mahogany in there.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

piano keys only had a thin veneer of irory over a hardwood body, so not really nut and saddle material. however, would make good inlay and heel cap material if it happened to be ivory.

also the sound board might provide some useful spruce, but it isn't an easy task to salvage it.

So how can you tell genuine ivory from plastic and such? I was hoping to salvage the sound board and any mahogany, but I'm not an authority on wood identification. Could use some tips on that if a crash course is possible. Also, are the black keys veneered as well?

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DES - Shepherd, MI

Darin, aside from the case, you probably won`t find much that fits in with guitars. I had the same notion with a couple pianos awhile back.
The keys are more than likely ivory and ebony, as the date is before WWll and the restrictions placed on ivory harvest. The ivory is pretty thin (about .050" or so), and the ebony is real, but what you see on the keyboard is all there is, so there really isn`t all that much left for luthiery.
You might be able to sell off the parts out of it, like the action and the harp (if it isn`t cracked), and maybe the damper trappings to make a modest buck. Ebay is where I was able to get some hard to find parts for my piano.
I would suggest parting it out on Ebay for some cash, and see what you might be able to harvest wood-wise from the case and soundboard.
Feel free to PM me on the project, and I can talk you through quite a bit of parting one out in order to make it worth the time and trouble.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

[QUOTE=Darin Spayd] So how can you tell genuine ivory from plastic and such?[/QUOTE]

A hot pin will melt plastic but only char ivory.

Cheers

Kim

Before scrapping that piano, you might want to get some other opinions about it being worthless as a piano. for example, here in Ithaca there's a guy who will put some time and resources into repairing a piano that might otherwise be deemed "not worth it" in order to donate it to a charitable organization. Another possibility might be a student of piano repair/rebuilding using it as an instrument to practice on (and then possibly donating it after it's made playable again).

Getting a second opinion from another piano rebuilder/restorer could be worthwhile as well. There's always the possibility, unless you know otherwise, that the person who made the determination that it's not worth fixing isn't fully aware of the potential value of this piano. Anything can be fixed.

I don't know anything about McPhail, but hey, a baby grand piano, if it was well built to begin with, is nothing to sneeze at. It would be a shame to trash it if it can continue to serve a purpose as a piano.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

My thoughts exactly, Todd. How much it costs to repair the instrument shouldn't be waged against how much the instrument is worth, but rather how much it would cost to replace the instrument. I would bet that the cost to repair this baby grand is a lot less than buying a new baby grand.

Imagine if people used the same logic with antique cars?!? Often the cost to rebuild the car is far more than the current value of the car.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Thanks for the input guys! Something is cracked and that's all I can tell you. Brad spoke to two different "piano people", mind you by phone only, and given the description he gave them they both said you could buy a comparable one new for as much as repairing this one would cost. I wanted it for my wife who plays some and would love one, but understandably would not want one to just show up without her playing it first. After all, when I bought my guitar, I didn't send her to the store to get what she thought I'd like. I had "test drive" it myself. Anyway it's doomed since my brother has niether the time nor the patience to worry about it any further. He did have it sold about a month ago on Ebay, but talked the guy out of it by insisting on sharing the opinions (his and the experts)
that it was possibly not worth his efforts. I'm with those who believe that just about anything is worth fixing, especially a musical instrument, but it's more than I can handle so I'll salvage what I can.

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DES - Shepherd, MI

BTW, I could still use some tips on ID-ing valuable wood from this endevor....please.

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DES - Shepherd, MI

did I read somewhere that Roger Siminoff uses a piano hammer with a rosewood handle on it for tap tuning his tops?

you could make a fair profit selling the hammers alone under luthier/kits on Ebay as "Siminoff recommended"......martinedwards39025.1610185185

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