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“My son’s school just got some new pianos and is auctioning off their old ones. Could I get a good deal there?”
(Before we continue, I need you to go back and review “Why Does My Piano Go Out of Tune?”. We will continue from here when you return.)
Going for a cup of coffee while you read the other article…
Welcome back – let’s begin:
- School pianos are generally purchased on a lowest bid basis. The district will usually specify how many pianos they want and some general standards they expect the instruments to meet, then put out the proposal for bids. Lowest bid usually gets the deal.
- Piano service, at least in larger districts, is usually contracted on a lowest bid basis. Tunings are usually done at most twice per year. Regulation and other maintenance is usually put off as long as possible, sometimes requiring special authorization from the purchasing department. Smaller districts don’t have enough pianos to attract low enough bids to make it worthwhile for them. Since they generally have to pay full retail for their service, pianos often only get tuned once a year. I have even encountered some poorer districts where the pianos only got tuned if the teacher shelled out personal funds to get it done.
- Temperatures in classrooms where pianos are kept can vary as much as 25 degrees in the course of a day, depending on region and season. Many schools have programmed thermostats so that the heat (or cooling) kicks in about 7 a.m. then cuts off by 4 p.m.
- Schools have always tended to keep pianos until it would cost more to repair them than to replace them. I would expect in the current economic climate, especially with the way arts programs are getting less and less support in school budgets, this will probably become the rule more than the tendency.
To sum up, you have a piano that probably was not the best available to start with, kept in an adverse climate until it is thoroughly worn out and given only a fraction of the maintenance it needed over the course of its lifetime. Sounds like a terrible deal to me.
Photo Credit, eflon
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