Having tuned pianos for about six years, I think this is a misconception. An piano left untuned for many years will certainly lose its ability to be retuned in a single tuning. Owners who try to bring it back into tune with a single tuning will fail, and think it can't be retuned. That's completely normal. What's more, retuning it correctly (evenly distributed tension) may be beyond the casual neighborhood tuner. But the absolute inability to be retuned is rare.

On the other hand, if the strings need replacing (sound dead, tinny, or thin, after as many as 50 years for good strings or as few as 10 for poor ones) or the tuning pins don't hold (long term lack of climate control), the piano probably needs restringing, which is labor and skill intensive and maybe not worth the time and money (from one to several grand) compared to purchasing a new piano (Costco has surprisingly good prices!) unless it has sentimental or collector value. But if you don't mind the expense, even with bad strings and tuning pins, the piano can be fixed and tuned.

Provided the tuning pins hold and the strings aren't ruined, a piano can generally be retuned in a patient series of 3 - 5 tuning sessions to gradually (with ample settling time between sessions) bring the whole (strings, soundboard, plate, bridges) back into well balanced tension.

It sounds to me like cfinke made a poor choice when acquiring a used instrument, then extrapolated that to 'all old instruments are bad/can't properly hold pitch'. (/exaggeration).

cfinke should've just gotten someone who knows about pianos to help him/her choose a good one, the way you might with a used car (although the choice is more subtle and less statistics-based).

As a counter example, I practice every day for hours on a baby grand piano from the 1930's which is very sturdy, with a beautiful tone. It was sitting unused (and untuned!) for decades in an old woman's house.

It was purchased for 1,000 euros at an auction, one of only two bidders.

I had it tuned by someone: it still sounded problematic, but good for practicing. I had a different tuner come and he made it sound incredibly good after a single tuning.

So the technician makes a huge difference too.

Piano restoration is fascinating, but engineers tend to underestimate how important trained hearing is in in order to improve the sound.

(rather than just being able to make a piano function properly on a mechanical level).

This information came to me via my father (a church musician, organist, and pianist for 40 years) and a number of piano tuners in the area that I talked to about getting the piano back in playing condition. I'm familiar with musical instruments and wouldn't claim that all old instruments are bad.

cfinke should've just gotten someone who knows about pianos to help him/her choose a good one

When we did eventually purchase a piano, we talked to the right people and made an informed decision. In the story I shared, the price (free) was more important than the condition.

http://mrsamberapple.com/piano-desk

We made a piano desk. Took about 2-3 days to complete. Typing on it now matter of fact! :) Be happy to answer any questions.

Do you know the sound that the TARDIS makes when it materializes? Part of that sound is someone at the BBC radiophonic workshop scraping a wrench against the strings on a harp from a disassembled piano.

eg http://www.freesound.org/people/patchen/sounds/8962/

"What do you play?"

"The discordion."

I just rebuilt the engine in my truck. A neglected engine does not spell the end for a vehicle - but it seems to be that that is in fact the case for a neglected piano. Is that true?

Well, you could always disassemble the piano, replace the strings, tuning pegs, and possibly the soundboard, and put it back together, but what you really have is a new piano in an old case, much like if you completely rebuilt the mechanical parts of a car but kept the original body.

The strings are under a lot of tension, and if they're way out of tune simply cranking them a semitone back into tune won't do much. They won't stay put.

From the bit I've dealt with a piano tuner, they told that you're generally not supposed to tune it more than I believe it was about 4 cents each time (a semitone is 100 cents). It gives the strings and everything else a chance to adjust before tuning again. It's a similar idea to a guitar I think... If you just crank the tuning pegs around a few times it generally doesn't stay in tune very well. It needs to be a slow process.

If you've got an old, very out of tune piano it may take several tunings over a couple of years to bring it back into tune, but it should be do-able.

There's also humidity to take into account - you need to keep the humidity pretty constant while you do this or the wood will absorb/release water and change shape and bring the piano back out of tune.

It seems like those "negative value" pianos would be a good source for reclaimed wood for woodworking projects. I can see turning an old upright into a solid end table or something.