How to Take Apart a Piano

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

[lukemastrien]

Everyone should know IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU RELEASE THE TENSION ON THEM STRINGS !! It can EXPLODE!!!! I sure hope they knew what they were doing!!!

[TheJohnroney]

wrong approach, doing this you could hurt yourself, and damage your home (white carpet notwithstanding :) … 1. remove keys first 2. relieve tension in strings and remove the strings. 3. remove all ‘plates’ - bottom woodplate, front keycover plate, etc… before trying to disassemble the furniture/body. The guy in this video almost hurt himself badly 3 times, and got lucky.

[rather-reverend]

Damn. This is old, but you guys did a GREAT job on this, and it was very helpful to me. Local companies (here in Switzerland) charge almost exactly $500 (US!!) to get rid of a piano. Yu can believe I'm very interested in doing the job myself! I completely don't get all the dislike on this video.

[chrismartin]

Haha... I came here to learn how to take apart my piano so I could move it up a flight of stairs and reassemble. I don't think my wife would appreciate this method.

[glenwelsh]

@1.27 when he lands it on his foot and calls his son to get the crowbar to lift it off his foot. Well done dad

[leeharland]

Wow I cannot believe the amount of haters that showed up to comment. I have to remove pianos often for work. Go on craigslist or kijiji and find tons of them listed free. This is because you get dinged alot if you leave it behind when you sell the house. Alot of donation centers wont take them either because everyone in 2020 buys the compact model for this very reason. Its hard to find places who will take them. They are brutal to transport from one house to another as you have to keep them upright. Which is why people post them for free. After 13 pianos removed i finally found a situation where i have to dismantle it so THANK YOU FOR THE POST. It was your first piano demo and it was a success.

[Kindness_]

What would someone charge to do this ?

[owenmuse]

I cant believe your wife let you do that on her white carpet ... you're good!!

[fnersch]

To build that piano today would cost 20-30 thousand. People are throwing away pianos like crazy. Piano production peaked in 1910.

[joelweber]

HAHAHAH my favorite part is dad dropping piano on his hand!! 1:32
Great teaching moment for his son :)

[martinadams]

That looks easy and also misses the difficult part. My piano was much more difficult because the keys the strings were anchored in the wood part of the piano, not the iron harp. This meant ALL the stings had to be cut. And the the iron harp weighed an absolute ton. I had to get the angle grinder on it to cut it up just so I could take it away

[altronixvideo]

This isn't how to do it. The whole thing can be dismantled safely and with minimal damage with it lying on it's back.
1. Whilst standing upright remove anything loose: panels, keys, hammer mech, lid ect.
2. Lie it down
3. Remove supporting front legs, keybed, and peddles
4. Cut/unwind all the strings
5. Remove harp frame.
6. Either you can now whack the sides off with brute force. Or use Methylated Spirits to dissolve the glue, enabling the whole panel to come off in a oner without damage.
7. All that's left is the back structure with the sound board attached.

[barkatthemoon]

How long did it actually in real time? I'm going to have to take this route too. 🙁

[roseynugent]

Hello. Was any of the wood reusable afterwards? I need to dismantle our piano and was wondering if I could make some shelves out it. Thanks.

[crystalcale]

How long did this process take? W've tried all weekend to give our piano away (we have another) and we can't possibly move it ourselves to even take it to the curb! We're thinking of trying this method but wanna know how long it took.

[matteliano]

I would love to recover the hardwoods from these pianos to repurpose. Run them through a planer and you have some expensive wood, good as new.

[weidongjiang]

through looking the piano style, The first one is younger than the second one, just punch or glue some strings pins and tuning it up, it will work again.😊

[thefrenchfriguy]

2:13 How'd you put it back together???

[hugosantos]

Did you sell the metal parts. I'm doing the same here in my basement and wondering if those parts could worth some money

[renek]

Was war mit dem Klavier nicht mehr in Ordnung?