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If you are a novice piano buyer trying to buy a used piano, there are several types of instruments that should be instant “red flags”. Each of these types of used piano has one or more potentially critical problems severe enough that a buyer would be best-served to totally avoid them. There will be a few pianos in some groups that are exceptions to the rule and might be safe to buy after a technician’s inspection (some of these possibilities will be mentioned), but to be as safe as possible you should avoid them completely. In most cases, if you buy one of these pianos you will end up spending several hundred to several thousand dollars more than should be needed for basic piano maintenance just to get the piano as playable as possible and keep it there. Unfortunately, even after you spend the extra money you will not be happy with what you have.
(This is Part 2 in a series. If you missed Part 1, you can find it here. Each post will address at least one of the types of used piano in question. Your comments and questions are welcomed.)
Lester spinets in blond finish –
From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s various piano makers started experimenting with plastics as a cost-cutting measure on some of their pianos. A few worked fairly well. I have seen some pianos from that period where the plastics held up almost as well as their wooden counterparts. Then there were the others. The most flagrant example that I ever encountered was the “Betsy Ross” spinet from Lester Piano. An otherwise reasonably good piano, as spinets go, Lester put plastic elbows on their spinets for several years. For about 15 years these elbows would work properly, then they would start to crumble. Once one or two crumbled, it was only a matter of time until the others failed. Sometimes several would fail while playing one or two songs. I even remember hearing several accounts of children getting into trouble because their parents thought that the children had broken the keys from banging on them. (When an elbow would break the front of the key would drop and just hang there.) At one point in my career, I was paying my rent at least two to three times every year just from what I earned replacing elbows. NOTE: I refer to the blond finish because that was the most common finish for these pianos during the period when this was a problem. If you find a Lester spinet with a darker finish, it is possible that (1) it is a newer instrument, or (2)it is a reconditioned and/or refinished instrument. In either case, the piano will probably have wooden elbows. If that is the case the piano might be worth consideration for a practice instrument. If the elbows are still plastic I have one question- “How fast can you run?”
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