Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Just Bought a 1900-1905 Ivers and Pond Upright Piano!

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and excited to be here. I live in North Carolina. Went thrift shopping yesterday with my daughter and found what appeared to be a very nice antique piano in the corner of the Goodwill store, LOL. The cabinet is in great condition and the finish is unblemished. I played all the white keys and no clinkers, no buzzing, no broken keys. Opened it up and it appears to have no interior damage to hammers or strings. I didn't see any cracks to the harp, didn't get a good look at the soundboard. I wasn't shopping for a piano, but it "called to me."

I play the piano (have an electronic full keyboard) but know little about the "innards" and nothing about value or restoration. They were asking $700, I did a quick internet search and offered them $399. I am having it delivered (40 miles) next week by a piano moving company.

It is an Ivers and Pond serial 38732, which means it was made between 1900 and 1905. The hammer rail is stamped North Carolina, so maybe the hammers and etc were replaced in NC more recently? I don't even have it home yet so I'll add more details later.

Anyone have any experience with this vintage and piano maker? From what I've read it was a good piano in its day.
I intend to get it cleaned and tuned and then find out what else it needs. Is it possible to restore a piano in phases? I realize it likely needs new felts, hammers, strings and pins if those haven't been replaced in 125 years:)

Any input or feedback on this piano would be greatly appreciated:) Laura

This make was my first piano, many years ago...$200. Maybe 50" or more, sound was incredible. Tuner pointed out why it wasn't easy to tune; a knee high water mark and rusted strings. I saw one on line, new strings, etc., etc., after I had just bought a Kiawi upright. It was gone in a week, maybe days. If you can get it up to speed, a great instrument. Even with my Estonia grand, I remember the great sound it had. Good luck.

Since it hasn't been delivered, my suggestion is to see if you can get a refund and tell the store you will consider buying it after it's inspected by a piano technician. If it really needs the work you think it might need, that would cost many thousands of dollars and you don't know ahead of time how it will sound and feel after the restoration. That's why it's not usually recommended to buy a piano that needs major restoration work versus buying a piano that already has the restoration work done.

Sorry if this sounds negative, but I think it's really the best approach. It's true that this make was considered excellent, but after 120 years it likely needs quite a bit of work.

Considering that the design lifespan of a piano is about 30-40 years...

Peter Grey Piano Doctor

I'm no pro, but I have had a few older upright pianos. The Ivers and Pond name brand is well regarded here, based on previous threads about the brand.

There is no doubt that you are taking some risks that the piano might have issues, loose tuning pins, or other issues. It most certainly has a lot of wear, and age related deterioration to the delicate internal components.

But that doesn't mean you won't enjoy owning it and playing it. A tuner/tech can tell you a lot more when you have it cleaned and tuned. A lot of these old pianos are offered for free, or very cheap. Sounds like you paid them more than a fair price for what it is. The moving will cost you at least that much, or maybe more, and then the cost of tuning/cleaning/repairs.

All the negatives aside, I also think some of the older upright pianos from yesteryear look good, and sound better than most newer, more modern ones. All that said, based on my own past experiences with acoustic pianos, "newer is better" generally speaking, when it comes to acoustic pianos. But there are exceptions!

Good luck!

Rick

If I have just one mission on this forum, it’s to prevent one person—just one—from lugging home a 100-year-old piano from a thrift store (let alone paying for it, because they have no value) without first having a technician inspect it.

Mission: Apparently Impossible.

I'm pretty sure that was a very nice piano 100 years ago. Condition now? Hard to say. A pretty cabinet is one thing, playability as an instrument, a totally different animal. You bought an unknown. Might be junk in a pretty cabinet, might actually have a bit of life in it if given some minimal care.

As mentioned, your list of "new felts, hammers, strings and pins" would actually add up to multiple thousands of dollars. Even if you'd think you're going to do it all yourself, I don't think you'd get away with much under $2k in parts / materials. (I could be wrong, it's been a while since I was in the biz but I know stuff is expensive.)

Sounds like you already bought it and it is about to be delivered. I would think one of the first things you'd probably do is have a tuner/tech come and visit and give you an evaluation of what it is you bought. Good thing is, you only spent $400, which isn't really a lot of money in today's world. You'll probably give the tech another $150 to $200 for coming out, maybe seeing if it will tune and giving their thoughts on what you have and where you are condition wise.

Maybe you'll get lucky and it's tunable. Maybe you'll get even luckier and it won't need a lot of work to be minimally playable. But it is over 100 years old. Brace yourself for the worst, the likelihood of finding a gem is rare.

Laura-

Pianolover gave you great advice. Please take it. If the store is at all honorable, they will accept your request to have the piano examined. Remember, they got it for free! What does that say about its value?

As a learning exercise, I visited a thrift store with my apprentice. We examined 30 used pianos, priced from $100 to $500. We found one piano, a 20 year old console piano, that was worth the asking price. Most were worthless, capable of only low level performance without repair. Giving an old piano to a thrift store is cheaper than having it hauled to the dump.

Suppose it was a Model A Ford, a great car in its day. Would you pay to have it delivered to your home without first having it examined by an experienced mechanic?

Pianolover wrote: "Since it hasn't been delivered, my suggestion is to see if you can get a refund and tell the store you will consider buying it after it's inspected by a piano technician. If it really needs the work you think it might need, that would cost many thousands of dollars and you don't know ahead of time how it will sound and feel after the restoration. That's why it's not usually recommended to buy a piano that needs major restoration work versus buying a piano that already has the restoration work done.

Sorry if this sounds negative, but I think it's really the best approach. It's true that this make was considered excellent, but after 120 years it likely needs quite a bit of work."

Not to contradict any of the expert advise already generously handed out above as I am in no way an expert in any shape or form with regards to pianos. I can only tell my own experience with our piano, which happens to be an Ivers and Pond upright piano built around 1916.

We've had this free piano in our house for 20 some years. During most of that time here periodically some of our kids or grand kids would hammer away on it. All I could do once they started getting loud on it was go over and coach them to play me some soft pretty music. Most always they would tone it down and get gentile on the keys. Then, no matter what they played ( ) I'd tell them I like that pretty soft music the were playing. Ok, it was not much for music, but they tried to please grandpa.

Anyway, 2 years ago I got it into me that I wanted a piano to play for me. I wound up buying a used Pianodisc system and installed it myself into that 107 year old Overs and Pond upright, which we already had conveniently tucked away under the staircase in our old living room. Now I'm not trying to talk anyone I to attempting to install their own player system in their pianos. My working years I was all over factory automation, so I guess maybe it was inevitable that one day I might try this.

For just over 2 years now, we have been playing and enjoying thus 109 year old piano, playing it (allowing it to play itself for hours at a time and a number of time a week.

I did do my own tu ING on it twice now and some say it's not bad but other say it needs help there. We had company over a few months back and one guest plays piano so I asked her to do a few some on it. Our live inhouse concert went on about a half hour. She said it played well and didn't feel heavy. (What ever that is.) Maybe a tuning would be in order. I'm like Yan some day.

I do not see any cracks in soundboard. I don't know the history on this piano but somehow don't believe it's ever been rebuilt. Yet,,, I play it hard and regularly. Only broke on piece loose in the action, removed whole anction and then the one hammer asy and repaired it. If I get the chance, I'll find one of my music videos and post it here.

Again, some advice was such as to return it until you get it evaluated. Seems to be good advice, but just in case that's not an option at this time, maybe my I&P upright piano story will allow you to ease your mind for a while.

I lied above. Only tuned it once myself and not since. I referring to twice, I tried "something" months earlier but that was not all keys and no where near close to refer to it as a tuning. Waiting for time to go through a number of things with this system, one being another tuning. One day I might have funds for a pro tuner but not this summer.

Here's one of my recordings. Hope it doesn't hurt the ears of any techs or pianist but it is what it is.

Beautiful tune, and a beautiful tone! And, a beautiful piano adventure story!

Rick

Honest opinion; it sounds better than I expected it would. It would be interesting to hear what a good tuning would do. It doesn't appear to be terribly low in pitch.

It's a noble endeavor.... even if mostly ineffective!

Thanks Rick. I have plenty of songs to play in different formats. Some better, some worse. This song is one of my favorites.

Belly, Thank you. Our house would be open to anyone wanting to do a pro bono tuning so we could all find out how much better it could sound. 😀 Tyning is just not in our budget for this year any more.

Sure would like a follow up from OP.

I'm surprised by all the concern expressed above. The OP indicated that they know the piano will need work:


They even put a smiley face after the statement. They paid a few hundred bucks, not thousands. They're excited about the project. I think that's very cool.


Re. Ivers and Pond, I dug up David Burton's original list (the old PW page is still available at archive.org), which includes a breakdown of quality "golden age" uprights (I think the later list that's still available at PW is grands only). Anyway, Ivers & Pond is on the list. Also, as others noted, this site is full of glowing Ivers & Pond stories.

Here's the list:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160606163757/https://pianoworld.com/brand_opinion.htm


* From re-reading the page, it sounds like DB put this list together in consultation with a number of rebuilders.

Yeah, I'd love to hear how this is going for them.