JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Piano sales have decline drastically...

They do make a piano dolly that the stores use to move around. It's like a cart that you put under the piano with straps that you wrap around. Once you get it secure and strapped up you're good to go. One person can move it around.

I had a 1916 Washburn upright that was given to me. I had a music store owner friend who loaned me his dolly to move it around. I don't know how the dolly works on a grand. This piano was painted an ugly white so I thought I would try to restore it. I stripped off the paint and put a dark walnut stain on it and a finish. I took off the old ebony and ivory keys and replaced them with plastic (that's what they use now). I gave the old keys to a woodworker friend to use as inlay. The piano looked beautiful. Only problem was it didn't play. While I was taking it apart, I removed the action piece to replace springs and felt. I actually got in over my head. I tried to seat it back in and couldn't do it. It takes an expert to work on the action. Nevertheless it sat at my parents house for over ten years just looking pretty.

Later on my brother moved in and brought some furniture over that was infested with termites. By the time I was ready to work on it some more all the wood was eaten up so I had to burn it. I had to call someone with a claw truck to pick up the cast iron harp and haul it away.