replace/rebuild

[Mark Cramer]

I've just re-read technical bulletin #6 "Rebuilding/Reconditioning."

The comment I was looking for states "Rebuilding restores the piano to
original condition or better."

That comment, the prospect of actually restoring a piano to "BETTER THAN
ORIGINAL" really motivates me! I love rebuilding, and would not quickly
negotiate away the inherent satisfaction this facet of our trade provides.

At Brandon University, and the Banff Centre (if I may Denis?) we have chosen
to rebuild our quality instruments rather than replace with new. Our belief
(delusion, if you will) is that many of our older instruments may be of a
higher original quality than we can purchase new. Also, as another colleague
mentioned, we can rebuild at a fraction of replacement cost.

Rebuilding is a culture, that is, it's a philosphy that must be cultivated
and shared by the faculty, administration, technicians, (yes, bean counters
too), and ultimately appreciated by our students. As such, even cabinet
restoration becomes a source of pride, even though we out-source this part.

I guess I hadn't given the alternatives much thought, and appreciate the
discussion this thread has provoked, thanks Wim.

Mark Cramer,
Brandon University




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-caut@ptg.org [mailto:owner-caut@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
ANRPiano@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2001 6:12 PM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: Re: replace/rebuild


Wim,

At Northern Illinois University nearly all of our S&S come from the late
60's
- early 70's.  For the past 10 years or so David Graham has been replacing
the actions, we are starting on another set of hammers on some of the
earlier
jobs.  For the past 4 years I have been restringing and replacing the
underlever systems with the Renner kit.  For the most part these pinblocks
are holding up fairly well, a couple have some moderately loose tuning pins
even after going up to 4/0 but I expect I should be able to nurse them along
until funds are available for new blocks.

The cost of new is certainly greater than to work we do in our case so its a
fairly easy decision.

BTW the concert instruments have all been rebuilt within the past few years.

Andrew Remillard