Look for at least ⅛” clearance between tuning pins coils and the pinblock or plate.Are tuning pins uniform in appearance, or are there some obvious replacements? The latter could indicate the pinblock is going bad.The tuning pins should be checked by a technician.

Badly out-of-tune unisons may be a sign of loose tuning pins, especially if the piano has been tuned recently or if the mistuning of the unisons is gross.

Is the piano up to standard pitch? Is it in reasonable tune?.

Does a matching bench in good condition come with the piano?.

Check for loose veneer and other signs of water damage.

Does it have any missing or broken cabinet parts or hardware (music desk, hinges, etc.)?.Has it been restyled in an unusual way?.

If you decide to proceed further with a piano after examining it with this list, you will need to hire the services of a professional piano technician to check some things you could not, such as the tightness (torque) of the tuning pins, and to render an experienced judgment about the piano as a whole. The list is a brief summary of the section “Checking Out the Piano.” I assume you have read the section and know how to remove the outer case parts of a piano to look inside. Here is a checklist you can copy and take with you when checking out a used piano. (Sometimes a three- or four-digit number used in the manufacturing process also appears on various case parts don’t confuse this with the serial number.) When no serial number can be found or if the year of manufacture isn’t listed in Pierce, sometimes a technician can estimate. Or the number may be printed somewhere else on the plate or soundboard, printed or engraved on the top or back of a vertical piano back, or printed or engraved on the front edge of a grand piano key frame (Figure 1). Usually four to eight digits, the serial number is most often located near the tuning pins, either printed directly on the plate or engraved in the wooden pinblock and showing through a cut-away portion of the plate. Find the serial number of the piano so you can look up its year of manufacture in the Pierce Piano Atlas.

Petrof piano serial number age