Sing us a song, you're the piano man

[Myztlee]

So I did some location work for a commercial, taking furniture out of the house, storing it in a cube van, then back today to replace it all. The owner asked if anyone was looking to buy a piano, they were trying to get rid of theirs.

Now, we're pretty broke, but when you have the opportunity to buy a piano for $100, even if it's quite out of tune and beat up, you have to take it. Especially when the piano movers were already paid for the job, they delivered it to me instead of putting it back in the house.

I know very little about pianos, but was told it's a "full harp", which makes it some kind of upright baby grand piano. G.W. Lindsay Ltd made it, don't think it's a very prestigious company, thinking it's somewhat local. One key seems broken, but from what I can see, only a small piece is loose, could almost chance going at it myself. But I'd rather have a professional look at it, aside from that key and dust, it looks in decent shape (mechanics-wise, the wood is beat to hell in places but who cares), but definitely needs a serious tuning.

Does anyone know a good, respectable piano doctor in the Toronto area?

[Gwaar]

The Key that seems broken is probably a broken string.

[Myztlee]

The string is ok, it's a small piece on the hammer, can't easily describe it, but I can see there's a piece that's slipped off a spring and is sort of loose, but I can't really get at it to fiddle and don't want to risk breaking it.

[Myztlee]

Sarah started playing it last night - the pads need replacing, but other than that (and the broken key, which luckily is one of the really high notes you rarely use), we've decided we like it being so out of tune - it sounds exactly like a haunted house piano, kinda creepy but cool. It's perfect!

[Talas]

eww, out of tune pianos. =\

If you want a creepy sound just play:
C Eb Gb A/Bb (diminished/half diminished). It is creepy enough! Diminished/half-diminished is the chord of choice for all old Hitchcock movies. :D

Upright pianos are smaller and must have their strings bent in order to produce the same tone (same length, just wrapped in halves to reduce overall size of the piano). Full-harp doesn't have any wrapped strings, so it has a "better" tone.

$100 piano is pretty sweet! =)

I'm still looking to find someone selling a 1970's Mark VI saxophone for <$500 at a garage sale. Ebay has kind of ruined those gold mines though, since people just check the avg price listing at $5000! =P