Gulbransen Pinafore (spinet) piano repair

[kevm14]

Rescued a piano from my great aunt's house who is selling it since she is now in assisted living. It is a spinet (means mini-upright essentially). Gulbransen Pinafore. Who knows how old it is. Probably pretty old.

Needs:
- Tuning. Mostly completed using an app and tools (both were purchased). The entire piano was a full note flat basically.
- A broken string. G3 note. Wire diam 0.033", W14. On the hunt for this
- Six broken drop lifters. Ordered set of 12 for $10. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H1 ... UTF8&psc=1

So far I am very satisfied I have been able to tackle this piano without calling a repair specialist.

[kevm14]

About to order a string to these specs.

[kevm14]

Just ordered a custom string. $26.50 shipped. They charged $10 for USPS which is clearly more than it actually costs but whatever.

Piano tuning app. PianoMeter for Android. $25 for Plus version.

Piano tuning tools/kit. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HI ... UTF8&psc=1
Very nice kit. Highly recommended. $41.

Set of 12 drop lifters. $10.

Total: Around $102.50 to repair piano back to fully working order and tune.

Makes me wonder what this would have cost from a professional. Piano repair side business??

[Bob]

A basic tune for a Yamaha upright that we purchased last fall was $140 and this did not include any repairs, only tuning.

[kevm14]

Some pictures. You could fit a grand piano in this room but placing this piano required moving a chair and small end table and that was it.

20190519_193328.jpg

20190519_193335.jpg

Tuning.

20190603_181530.jpg

20190603_181533.jpg

Playing.

20190603_194735.jpg

20190603_194741.jpg

20190603_194745.jpg

20190603_194749.jpg

Upper cover comes off with 4 screws. Large lower cover comes off with no tools at all. It has a spring retainer type thing. I didn't know how I was going to get in there. This is how.

20190609_083948.jpg

Broken drop lifter shown. I will have to thread the rod into the new one and adjust so the key plays at the right height.

20190609_084001.jpg

Much more clear how it all works from the bottom. Like six of these have broken now. May not be the last but I did buy 12.

20190609_084024.jpg

[kevm14]

A basic tune for a Yamaha upright that we purchased last fall was $140 and this did not include any repairs, only tuning.

What did the piano run you? Obviously Yamaha is fairly premium (maybe a piano snob would say mainstream-premium but I don't really know - I just know their music stuff in general is considered good).

[Bob]

The piano was $500, which is a good price for what we got. I found it on Nextdoor listed for $750 and offered the seller $500. It had been relatively unused for about 20 years by the previous owner, but everything was in good working order. FWIW, the guy from the piano shop who did the tuning said he would have charged about $1700 for the same piano at his store.

[Bob]

The exact model is a Yamaha M204, 1980s vintage.

[kevm14]

That's awesome. Not sure about finding a deal like that up here or in general but it sounds like I better cap spending on this spinet (and that is the plan assuming I am successful). The cool thing about the spinet is that my dad and I got it into my Ram. Then Adam helped me unload at my house. It was heavy but obviously two men handled it. Adam and I thanked those two men after they were done. Zing.

[dochielomn]

I think the bigger question is "Kevin, when did you learn to play piano"? Or is this not for you or for Jamie or the kids to learn on?