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Hi everyone,

I am going to view a Baldwin Hamilton Upright Piano, 243HPA, 45", Serial number: 343153. Asking price: CA$2,500. I was told that it hasn't been used for about 3 years (no tunning). Is it worth to view? How do I check it if it hasn't been used for such a long time? Thanks!

Helen

It all depends, I'm afraid.
If it hasn't been used but has been in a stable environment without a lot of heat and humidity, it might be doable. If it's been in a basement, that's not good.
I'm afraid I don't have the resources to check the serial number.
That said, the 243 is a good piano, durable as heck, and occasionally with surprisingly rich tone and responsive action.
But not always.
So . . . my advice would be to find out the actual age of the piano, where it has been for the past 3 years, and then, if its' less than 20 years old and has been in an acceptable environment, to hire a tech and go look it over.
It might be a find.

I have check the serial number and came up with the following info:

1980: 343950.

So the one should be a little bit earlier than 1980. The age is probably about 28 years old, I guess. I will view it tomorrow with my son's piano teacher.

BTW, do you think a piano teacher can check it for me instead of a technician?

Double-check that serial number. The age might be quite a bit older.

A piano teacher can check the action and listen to the sound. If the piano hasn't been tuned in 3 years, it's not going to sound great to a teacher, a technician or to you.
A technician can do far more than a teacher. If there are problems, the technician can tell you how serious they are and the cost involved in correcting them. I doubt that the teacher could provide that kind of information.

I bought my Hamilton in 1976. I don't recall the serial number, unfortunately, and I no longer own it, since I've moved up. Hamiltons are very durable pianos, but they can have issues. One of them is the leather on the jack (if I have this wrong, someone please advise) is not really leather, but some artificial material that wears out, and in my case, came off. This was a job that took my tech several hours to repair.

The action on my piano was not particularly good either (hey, I got it when I was 26!), and no matter what my techs did, I could never get the piano to perform well.

Lastly, after 30 years, the piano had lost all its dynamic range. Subtlety was not one of its high points. It had two volumes - loud and very loud. I know this is a matter of voicing, etc, but I didn't want to pour more money into it.

Have a tech look at it (not a teacher), for he'll see things that a teacher can easily miss.

Oh, and when I asked about selling my piano, dealers told me I should ask $2000 (US), accept $1500.

I traded it in for $1500 when I got my grand.