Scap that piano, I beg you!

Here is an interesting one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19706812

This might well be the fate of my old groaner.

 

When I was 18 my brother bought an old moth-eaten Pleyel with a wooden soundboard (I men the thingummy where the strings are attached to). Half the ivory had fallen off the keys and there were a couple of missing strings and, to boot, it was inhabited by a colony of... you know, those insects that chew wood. Let us call them termites, though I never checked to see. One had it tuned in the morning and by afternoon it was out of tune. When he moved I inherited it and, of course, until I got rid of it, I had no place for a new one. I had a hard time finding one who would take it. In the end we had to pay for the transport. Then I bought a Baldwin, which I had to sell eventually, when I moved country.

 

And my brother was offended when I told him it had been a negative investment, same as those morgages that are higher than the value of the house.