piano moving

1988RedT2 wrote:

sporqster wrote: I own a parlor grand piano I have moved twice. Money spent on strong guys with the right equipment and know-how is worth every penny. Consider having piano movers load the piano on your own or a rented truck there, then hiring local movers to unload it at the destination. I bet you'll be in the few hundred bucks range + the cost of the truck and fuel. Money well spent IMO.

This actually sounds like a good idea to me, and I'm not ddrunk yet.

Read carefully, that was done. That was actually quite a bit more expensive than the point-point.

With the U ship thing, do you -have- to accept one of the bids?

Around here, daily van rentals are way cheaper than a one way drop. Why not rent the van at your home base and return it 4 days later after driving it to pick up and deliver the piano?

tuna55 wrote: Read carefully, that was done. That was actually quite a bit more expensive than the point-point.

Ooops! Sorry. I was more focused on the actual handling of the piano. I've always either owned or could borrow a suitable truck. And I see you've quite a ways to haul the thing. Heck, I dunno!

rodrammage wrote: Around here, daily van rentals are way cheaper than a one way drop. Why not rent the van at your home base and return it 4 days later after driving it to pick up and deliver the piano?

The cheapest rental I found was something like $0.60 per mile, so roughly $1200 round trip. Crazy high.

tuna55 wrote: The cheapest rental I found was something like $0.60 per mile, so roughly $1200 round trip. Crazy high.

Odometers don't record when the speedometer cable is disconnected.

novaderrik wrote:

codrus wrote: My understanding (never owned one myself) is that anytime a piano is moved it needs to be retuned at the new location.

even the pianos that bands haul around on tour? just saw Kid Rock and Bob Seger last saturday night in Fargo, and each of them had their own pianos on stage... Kid Rock's looked like it was pretty rare- it was camouflage and had a "Mossy Oak" logo on it. i'm not too up on my musical instruments, but i think that's from old timey Europe....

Sure, why not? I'm sure Kid Rock can afford to pay someone to tune his piano at every concert tour stop.

tuna55 said:

With the U ship thing, do you -have- to accept one of the bids?

No. You get to choose which quote you want, but you don't have to pick one if you don't like them.

It takes a few days to get quotes. Personally I would deal with somebody locally, either where the piano is or at your home.

So, now piano-moving canoes are a thing.  Hard to imagine!

So, did you move it 7 years ago? How was the experience? 

Canoes are a hell of a lot easier to move than pianos.  

1988RedT2 said:

So, now piano-moving canoes are a thing.  Hard to imagine!

What a time to be alive 

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

1988RedT2 said:

So, now piano-moving canoes are a thing.  Hard to imagine!

What a time to be alive 

I think these high-end canoes kinda class-up the place...

Long paddle from down unda there mate...

I know we were canoed here, but since the last post in this thread... 

codrus said:

novaderrik wrote:

codrus wrote: My understanding (never owned one myself) is that anytime a piano is moved it needs to be retuned at the new location.

even the pianos that bands haul around on tour?

just saw Kid Rock and Bob Seger last saturday night in Fargo, and each of them had their own pianos on stage... Kid Rock's looked like it was pretty rare- it was camouflage and had a "Mossy Oak" logo on it. i'm not too up on my musical instruments, but i think that's from old timey Europe....

Sure, why not? I'm sure Kid Rock can afford to pay someone to tune his piano at every concert tour stop.

When I was in Vegas for SEMA last year, I had dinner with a professional piano tuner. They do indeed tune the piano on every concert tour stop. Fascinating conversation if you have the theory to go behind it, it's a lot more difficult than "match the frequency to the theoretical correct one" as the overtones change as you move across the keyboard. It really is an art.

At the time of his conversation, he had a gig to tune all the piano's in Liberache's old mansion. Also had some great stories about only tuning the middle third of (I forget, big pop star) piano per request of the tour manager because he never played outside that range and really it was just for him to hear anyhow and the piano wasn't mic'd.

In reply to tuna55 :

Sitting on my bridge is an upright grand. They were used by churches because of the volume of sound they can produce. Then later had thumb tacks put in the keys to produce that Honky Tonk sound. 
it was built in the 1930's when the $400 would buy you a new car or maybe even a house  

I got it for $50 when the piano company was liquidating it's stock of trade ins. 8 guys standing around helped me load it into the back of my Pickup I hauled it home and myself and another guy rolled it out of the pickup and laid planks to roll it into the house ( 130 feet in 8 inches of snow  ) 

To get it up onto the bridge I used pulley's tied to the roof trusses raised it over the bridge and he tied ropes to pull it towards the bridge  1- 2 - 3 drop and pull.  
 

Looks nice could use a tunes a few keys are off a little 

z31maniac said:

Sounds like this is one of those spots when paying a pro is worth it.

I don't get hiring pros. Yes it's work, but it can be done. Remember a pro is just someone who is paid to do work.
Maybe not safely if you start your helpers on beer before the job is done. 

Earlier this year my wife, a school teacher, got an offer from another teacher of a free piano.  My wife thought this would be neat for our 5 yr old daughter and I agreed.  However, I did not want to try to move a piano out of one house and then into my house.  We called a local mover... Net result, two guys (who had done similar before) with the right equipment like a lift gate truck, moved it out of one house and into ours for $100.  It was just about a 5 mile move.  I think they had just less than 1 hour into the whole job.  $20 tip to the two guys and it was a bargain to get a free piano, effortlessly, for just $120.   

No, we have not, and likely will not, get it re-tuned since this move.  

It's not the greatest heirloom but it's a Baldwin and plays well.  At $120 it was cheaper (or no more expensive) than a crappy electronic keyboard.  

frenchyd said:

z31maniac said:

Sounds like this is one of those spots when paying a pro is worth it.

I don't get hiring pros. Yes it's work, but it can be done. Remember a pro is just someone who is paid to do work.
Maybe not safely if you start your helpers on beer before the job is done. 

I once had to move a piano that belonged to my GF back around 1990.  Fortunately, I had a few friends to help--beefy young guys that liked to drink beer (hey, didn't we all?).  They did okay getting the piano out of the old place.  It was upstairs, and gravity is your friend.  But by the time we got to the new place, they had consumed a few.  Okay, more than a few.  We were doing okay.  I was marveling at how wide the stairs were up into the new apartment.  This was gonna be easy!  We had just entered the ground floor vestibule by the mailboxes and needed to shift a little and start the climb.  Somebody gave a bit of a lurch and the top back corner of the full-sized antique upright piano kissed the large plate glass window next to the door.  Glass doesn't really bend very well.  We were treated to the spectacle of a shower of glass.  Memorable. 

Management was very understanding.  I never even had to pay for the window.

In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :

Bravo, sir!

frenchyd said:

z31maniac said:

Sounds like this is one of those spots when paying a pro is worth it.

I don't get hiring pros. Yes it's work, but it can be done. Remember a pro is just someone who is paid to do work.
Maybe not safely if you start your helpers on beer before the job is done. 

A pro is someone who is paid to do work and also has the tools, experience and knowledge to do that work properly. I know we live in the era of the YouTube enabled overconfident amateur, but there are some times when you just don't want to learn by doing because the risk/savings ratio is out of whack.

Keith Tanner said:

A pro is someone who is paid to do work and also has the tools, experience and knowledge to do that work properly. I know we live in the era of the YouTube enabled overconfident amateur, but there are some times when you just don't want to learn by doing because the risk/savings ratio is out of whack.

QFT.  I have been involved in far too many amateur piano-moving escapades, including the one above.  And the one that occurred a few years before when that same piano was moved up a crazy narrow flight of stairs.  That's the time we kicked a hole in the sheetrock wall and couldn't make the turn at the top of the stairs and everybody was at the point of fatigue.  I sometimes think back on that day and marvel at the fact that we didn't lose control of that piano and have it fall down those stairs and maim or kill somebody.  It was very iffy for a time.

We all are young and crazy once.  The lucky among us live to see old age, which seems to me a fairly dubious honor.

novaderrik said:

codrus wrote:

tuna55 wrote: It was just tuned, and was regularly, and it's in good shape. It's not particularly pretty, but it's neat from a historical perspective, and I want it.

My understanding (never owned one myself) is that anytime a piano is moved it needs to be retuned at the new location.

even the pianos that bands haul around on tour?

just saw Kid Rock and Bob Seger last saturday night in Fargo, and each of them had their own pianos on stage... Kid Rock's looked like it was pretty rare- it was camouflage and had a "Mossy Oak" logo on it. i'm not too up on my musical instruments, but i think that's from old timey Europe....

i think i'd just pay the pros to move it.. these guys seem to know what they are doing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRKdWD2sVGg

yes, even the ones that get hauled around on tour get tuned once in place..  I am not 100% certain, but I think I remember seeing that Kid Rock's piano is a fake.  It's a shell with a keyboard in it, quite common to do when on tour.

Professional piano movers usually include tuning it in their quote. I've moved pianos. Paying the man seems like a viable option.