In Monday’s (7/30) New York Times, Daniel J. Wakin writes, “The Knabe baby grand did a cartwheel and landed on its back, legs poking into the air. A Lester upright thudded onto its side with a final groan of strings, a death-rattling chord. After 10 pianos were dumped, a small yellow loader with a claw in front scuttled in like a vicious beetle, crushing keyboards, soundboards and cases into a pile. The site, a trash-transfer station in [Southhampton] 20 miles north of Philadelphia, is just one place where pianos go to die. This kind of scene has become increasingly common. The value of used pianos, especially uprights, has plummeted in recent years. So instead of selling them to a neighbor, donating them to a church or just passing them along to a relative, owners are far more likely to discard them, technicians, movers and dealers say. … With thousands of moving parts, pianos are expensive to repair, requiring long hours of labor by skilled technicians whose numbers are diminishing. Excellent digital pianos and portable keyboards can cost as little as several hundred dollars. Low-end imported pianos have improved remarkably in quality and can be had for under $3,000. … Brian Goodwin, who owns Piano Movers of Nashua, N.H., said he created the Web site Piano Adoption partly as a clearing house to find homes from unwanted pianos.”
Posted July 30, 2012
