Piano Sleuth

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to buy a piano. I had about $500 saved up thus far for the whole operation, but I was still unsure of what direction I wanted to go. Did I want a new piano (which would have cost a bit more than $500, which means a lot more time spent saving)? Did I want an electric piano? Did I want a used piano? How used are we talking here? One day two weeks ago, I was idly checking craigslist for used pianos, and I happened upon a listing for the Green Valley thrift store (which is right close to me... actually, it's the only thing close to me). They were listing a piano for $180. "Chances are," I thought to myself, "it's a piece of crap." But I loaded the kids in the car and drove down there to check it out.

We got there, and the piano was off in a dusty corner with a tag that indicated the price had been marked down at least 3 or 4 times. Probably because all the keys didn't work.


So I opened her up to see what was going on with those keys.


I noticed that the inside had a fancy design on it, just like the piano I grew up with.


(This is a dramatization, of course.) What I saw was that the offending keys were disconnected.


There, right as rain. And, the little old ladies were very impressed at my engineering know-how.


While reassembling the piano, this little screw came out. I put it back in and decided to buy the piano. I could have afforded a nicer piano, but I had no way to move a nicer piano from who-knows-where in Tucson down to my house aaaaand, these nice old ladies were going to get someone to deliver it in two days for a nominal fee.

I waited with baited breath.

The piano showed up two days later and it looked... off. The first thing I noticed was that it didn't have a music stand (see above picture). I asked the delivery men if it had come off, or if they had taken in off and forgotten it. They didn't know what I was talking about. Huh, maybe that screw came loose and some helpful sales person had set it aside somewhere. I'd call the store later. The second thing I noticed was that some of the keys were cracked. I didn't remember that at all. Those moving jerks cracked my keys. I did a run up the keyboard to make sure they still worked, and a number of them didn't so I opened it up again. No fancy design. In fact, the whole set up was different. By this point, the moving truck was pulling away. I ran out behind them, flailing my arms, screaming, "You brought the wrong piano!!!"

There was only one piano in the store, they tried to tell me. I carefully explained my case, went through all my exhibits, and finally found my receipt that confirmed that yes, they had brought the wrong piano.


A few days later, they showed up with the right one. A week later, the nice old piano tuner man came and gave it his once over.


And now I have a piano.