Agreed. I have an 110 year old kimball, and in college i picked up a keyboard cause it was cheap and I could keep it in my apartment without pissing off neighbors. Now that I have both in my house I almost NEVER touch the keyboard, I love playing that old ass piano so much.

Eh i disagree. A very good electric would be much better to learn to play piano on.

Not really, I’ve played digital keyboards for many years and I can tell you, crappy pianos really aren’t worth your time and money. You like real pianos probably because you are used to the out of tune sounds, hence the “personality”, it’s really just, out of tune. I’m not saying acoustic pianos are bad, just saying old pianos, or pianos not maintained regularly, are worse than most digital pianos.

Brian Smith - and before electricity was harnessed by Ben Franklin, any piano would be better than a keyboard with zero power. So there. Have you ever been to Europe? People keep forgetting that everything humans ever achieved used to be done without electricity... 🙄

@@tamalyncervin2117 Franklin didn't harness electricity. He discovered it. Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse harnessed electricity.

@ 1:20 lmao! 🤣🤣

Micheal Wildman, to speedup the tuning process you can turn the handle while the note is playing. You can see and hear when you crank too much.

There is a lot to learn about tuning. Part of it is getting the sense in your hand that allows you to set the string to the right tension across its full length. The string can hang up a bit on the nuts and the bridge, and overcoming that is part of the job. Hammering loudly on the key tends to get rid of some of the problem. Sometimes the pins are too loose to hold a tuning, and at that point you have the choice of replacing pins (and possibly even replacing a cracked pin block) or else using "pin tightener" liquid. If you go to using pin tightener you'll need a piano tilter to do it right. Point gravity the right direction so that the stuff flows down the pin into the wood. If you don't have a tilter, three strong men can tilt an upright safely. One strong idiot can do it unsafely. Pin tightener is a religious matter. Some techs won't touch it, and will preach to you about why it does not even work. Google for piano tilter and you'll find info on how to use finger glue as pin tightener. To get a better sound you may need to voice the hammers, or even install a full set of new hammers and voice those. All these piano tech details are best left, say some people, to experts. But how did they get to be experts? Yes, of course, doing just what you are trying!

amazing763 , did you mean for your comment to be for Kristen? I am an experienced, professional piano tuner & repairman.

Raimo Geel , you should send your comments regarding tuning techniques to Kristen. I already know how to tune pianos.

Micheal Wildman For a piano that sounds ‘dead’, does changing the strings help like it does on a guitar? Or is that more the condition of the felt?

This one clearly was not cared for!

If its just few strings that loosen often they usually can fix individual tuning pins but once there are several and its not expensive make it may not be worth to fix.. When strings start to be over 60 years old one usually start to hear it too, had I like Steinway upright and were very rich I would change bass strings then.. I would rather buy 80s then midrange priced upright that has been tuned regularly than say 1920s very big Steinway upright with original strings that has been a decorative item over 10 years lol.. Such an instrument would require as many tunings as a brand new piano (3-4x) in the first year and sound would still not be excellent..

My own Gully is a nice piano with a good sound, but it does need further rebuilding.

@@amazing7633 Agreed. With mine being ~80 years old it definitely needs more than just some tuning - mine needs the felting redone in the keyboard especially around C2-C3.

Zizanie - Bonjour! I just read your comment in my best French accent and it made me really happy! Also I am a pianist on KZfaq (and I don’t even have 100 subscribers!)

Andrew Guthrie cockatiel I know I have that love been the centre of attention

@@daviobryker Yep, a Cockatiel. I have one as well.

People occasionally ask me the value of an old piano. I say, "It's usually a $50 piano." They'll complain, "I would think it would be worth a lot more than that." "Well," I tell them, "it's worse than you think. Perhaps you can find someone to pay you $50 for it. Or perhaps you'll have to pay $50 to get rid of it." 30 or 40 years ago I paid to have a 1928 Brewster player piano rebuilt. It sounded strident but good. Now it's due for another rebuild, but so am I.

It’s never too late to return to a piano...