Woodworm, Moth, Minor Repairs & More - Sometimes There's a Reason The Piano Is Cheap!

Woodworm in the piano

Old pianos, like antique furniture, often have woodworm holes, especially in the baseboard of uprights and the key-bed and frame of grand pianos.  If the piano is sufficiently old it would be surprising if it didn't have woodworm.  It’s not the end of the world as long as the woodworm has been treated and it hasn't weakened the structure.
We occasionally have pianos with woodworm holes which we always re-treat just in case.

We did, however, once acquire a lovely quartered walnut Erard grand piano from a piano technician who had bought it to rebuild for himself and then had a change of circumstance.  We collected the instrument and set it up to evaluate it.  As we pulled the action out the bass hammers and shanks practically disappeared in a cloud of wood dust – not only did it have rampant live woodworm, but they’d been chewing their way through most of the action for months.

The instrument was very quickly removed, as live woodworm can spread.
Pianos acquire woodworm from standing on floorboards that have become infested (possibly from an even older family piece of furniture) and the insects just move from one area to another.
So, ask a seller if that old instrument you are considering has had wood worm – and if it’s been treated.

Moth in a used piano

Pianos that are regularly played do not harbour moth – the noise and vibrations disturb them.  Pianos that have been left in storage or are just used as a place to put the photo frames on are far more susceptible to infestation.
If the fall (the part covering the keys) is lifted you can often see the moths fleeing into the darkness of the interior.  Likewise, if you remove the top door you will see movement as the winged insects fly away from the light.  What you won’t see unless you start removing the keys is the grubs munching away at the felts underneath.  They will also eat the hammers and dampers away.
Moth can be dealt with by spraying a suitable insecticide but the damaged components will probably need replacing unless you have caught the infestation very early.
If you see flying moths, then it’s too late – they got to be moths by eating the piano felts!

If you import a piano with moth into your home and don’t treat it, pretty soon all your cashmere sweaters will resemble antique lace – it’s not just piano felt that they eat!

Minor Repairs needed to the piano

Very often a piano will be offered with non-working parts, which invariably are ‘easy to fix’.  If the fix is easy then why did the seller not get it fixed to improve the selling prospects of their instrument?

The buyer in the Cautionary Tale knew that the piano had a non-working middle C key which was ‘easy to fix’.  It was easy to fix – it took my technician about 10 minutes to sort it out and get it working properly.

Unfortunately for the unlucky buyer (as if he didn't have enough problems with the piano) it took about two days to strip down the piano sufficiently to remove the action to get to the key (the piano was an old-fashioned player grand that uses paper rolls to play the instrument and is a lot more complex than an ordinary piano).  If that had been the only problem with the piano it would still have cost him several hundred pounds just to get the simple problem fixed and make the piano playable.

Just re-polishing a piano can cost a thousand pounds plus, depending on the size of the piano.  If you are not too worried about the appearance (and remember it won’t sound any better or play any better even if the outside is perfect) then a few marks and dings may be worth living with.  With older French polished pianos a good clean with white spirit and re waxing can improve the cabinet with no major cash outlay – just a lot of elbow grease.

Older than it looks - the ageless piano

One thing to watch out for is a piano that is older than it looks.  It was common in the 60’s and 70’s to restyle old 20’s and 30’s pianos to make them look more modern.

Pianos from the early 1900’s are usually quite tall, with panels in both the top and bottom door, sometimes with marquetry inlays.  Sometimes they would have had candle sconces as well.
In order to disguise the piano’s age the top (and sometimes bottom) door was taken off, the sides of the piano reshaped to the more modern sloping design, the panels removed and replaced with a single sheet of plywood and veneer and the door(s) refitted.  This gave the piano a more modern outline and made it more saleable.  There are many of these old pianos still around and some will still be worth buying.  But they are older than they appear.

One way to properly date a piano is by finding the serial number, which would have been on most pianos – although it sometimes disappears during restoration, or is in a less conspicuous place such as behind the action on the soundboard or behind the bottom door.