Pianos, and organs, and keys. Ohh my!

I have no personal experience with this, but i know that lots of people claim that you should bring a piano tech with you when buying a piano used, so you don't accidentally buy a piece of firewood.

Free is good, better if you know what your getting yourself into. There is often a reason why this stuff is free, but there are gems out there so your probably going to have to sift through garbage and if you have a truck it's much easier.
Try to find a tech nearby that knows old keys, and a piano tech!

We love our 'Cheesy Keys'!

I'm presuming you're looking for "free" or next to free....

that said, as far a piano's go, one question will weed out the need to go out and sift through most of the junk - as them for the name and number of their piano tech so you can speak with him. You might miss a few bargains, but you'll weed out 9 out of 10 pieces of junk that haven't been taken care of.

As for "what".... The dream setup would be :

Yamaha C7
Hammond B3 w/ 122 Leslie
Wurlitzer EPno
Rhodes EPho
Upright Piano

But you're not getting any of those for free.... :-)

I think that a lot of free stuff is people buying homes, showing up, and there is a piano there that they don't want. Those people won't have a tech, but could still have some decent pieces.

Anyone have suggestions on what to look for in an upright? Brands to look for? Construction? The tall ones have longer strings and presumably better sound, or no?

I'll probably end up grabbing a Hammond (M1 or M3?) and an upright.

No just born and bread Wisconsin Cheese head, who did sound for the president of the worlds largest cheese distributor in our youth. so yeah probably a bit crackers.

My wife who spent her teens in Holland once, was scoring me for miss pronouncing a type of cheese in the market, I ask her to pronounce the small WI town it's made in and she murders it so we decided we are even in our Cheese knowledge!

Had long time love realtionship with a piano tech.
You need something in good conditon, the tech can refresh it at you studio.
Profesional Piano transport service is also a good advise.

I grew up playing a Baldwin Acrosonic. It was the most toneless piece of firewood I have ever played. The best uprights I have played are the Yamaha U series, and you won’t get one of those for free.

Yeah. M3s are real baby tonewheel organs just like their big brothers in the B and C series. The "3" designates percussion stops, "2" is no percussion. The "M" identifiers it as a spinet form factor, which one octave shorter keyboards and lack the white on black (reverse color) keys that the bigger organs use to select presets. The M series only has one octave of bass pedals.

Be aware that all Hammond tonewheel organs, being electromechanical in nature, require periodic application of special Hammond organ oil, which is is added into little cups on top of the tonewheel assembly. If the organ hasn't been properly lubricated in a while the tonewheel assembly may not spin at a proper or consistent speed or might be completely frozen up, requiring disassembly and painstaking service. If some moron has tried lubricating it with the wrong oil the entire mechanism might be really gummed up, which would require disassembly and careful cleaning out of all the congealed gunk.

Tonewheel organs also use two motors to spin the tonewheel mechanism, one non-synchronous starter motor to bring everything up to speed from a standstill and one synchronous motor which is then switched on to lock to the line frequency and keep everything spinning in tune. Each motor has its own switch - the starter has a spring loaded nonlocking type so it springs back to off after the synchronous main main motor has taken over and the main motor has a regular locking type so it stays on once engaged until it's manually switched off. Needless to say, both motors must be in good operating condition for the organ to work.

Be aware that any Hammond tonewheel organ that has been sitting unused for any significant amount of time is almost certainly going to require having the tonewheel mechanism disassembled and cleaned before it's likely to work, just like an old vintage car that's been sitting unused in a barn for years and years without being periodically fired up.

Gotta love electromechanical technology!

The really important thing to be aware of with upright (or any) pianos is that if they're really old and have not been maintaned at concert pitch they probably can't be. This is becuse the iron in the frame crystallizes over time and if hasn't been kept undert tension the crystallized iron will crack under the increased tension. I doln't know if erven incrementally raising the tension in small steps over a long period of time would be able to overcome this. Frankly I'm doubtful.

If you find an old upright that has been maintained under proper tension the odds are it's going to have pretty dull, dead sounding tone. That's b ecause tyhe strings have been on there forever and need replacement by a professional piano tech. This is a fairly expensive proposition, but it will bring the old beast back to life and piano strings do last a long time. At the same have the action gone over to replace all the little worn out parts, flattened felt washers, etc. By the time you're done you'll have expended a fair amount of cash on your "free" piano, but if chosen werll it will be worth it.

Avoid spinet style ("low boy") pianos like the plague - the strings are too short tyo ever produce decent tone. And tghe majority of spinets "played" (I'm an horrible piano player) have tended toward slow, mushy action, even when more or less new.

There are a lot of free uprights, but you have to be careful that the piano has been kept up to pitch (regardless of whether it's really in tune as long as the tension is there).If it has been allowed to slip significantly below concert pitch it probably can't be brought up to pitch without the (now crystallized) cast iron frame cracking and when that happens it's done - feed it to a trebuchet.
You can't weld antique cast iron.

When I had to leave my place in the City we had to leave behind the 1870s vintage Mason and Hamlin upright that had been since the building was new because I couldn't afford the extra expense of moving it out of the second floor flat and having it trucked 60 miles. The piano was about as as old as the building and still held perfect concert pitch, although it badly needed restringing. Wish I could have taken it - the new landlords didn't want the old thing, they wanted to gussy up the place as cheaply as possible and rent it to tech yuppies for 3 times what we'd been paying. And there was a piano tuner/tech's shop right across the street.