Refinishing and painted cases

[Delwin D Fandrich]

JElving wrote:

> In a message dated 98-01-06 21:20:35 EST, you write:
>
> << Hi list,
>
>   I have a customer with an old S&S model K upright. When I walked into her
>   house for the first time, I saw that it had been “refinished” by being
> painted
>   over with high gloss white enamel house paint. >>
>
> At least it was white! I had a customer who wanted to have her *new find*
> tuned now that she had bought it (unfortunately from a dealer) and painted it
> PEACH to match the rest of her furniture. Couldn't understand it when I
> couldn't tune because of a split bass bridge (1/2 to 3/4 inch wide!) Never
> tune for an inferior decorator, even if your name is Newton!
>
> Have also had one customer that *refinished an old upright with wood-grained
> contact paper. Didn't stick real well in the CA-AZ desert country. At least it
> wasn't done like one that was refinished by an un-named (rightfully so!) RPT
> who buys old non-descript spinets and does them over in rolled and tucked
> Naugahyde. Big seller around his neck of the woods, especially the white ones.
> Even saw one of his *creations* done in leather looking stuff with steer horns
> attached.
>
> John Elving, RPT
> San Leandro, CA
> JElving@aol.com

---------------------------

A few years ago I evaluated a Steinway grand that a customer of mine was considering purchasing. It was being sold by a piano
salesman out of his home "for his mother." She either had a lot of pianos or he had a lot of mothers. This was only the first
of several I looked at in his home. The piano was in his basement rec. room. The lighting was just a little on the dim side.
The piano didn't look too bad, even though it had been "completely rebuilt." It had been refinished (fairly nicely), restrung
(ok), new hammers had been tossed on in the general vicinity of the ends of the hammer shanks (not so hot -- but then they
aren't out where they can be readily seen, are they?), etc. At first glance the soundboard even looked good. Things were
going well until I took out the flashlight. That was when the guy started to get nervous. As I got down to look at the bottom
of the soundboard he started making his excuses. From the bottom, the soundboard was a veritable maze of cracks, compression
ridges, patches, dripping glue, wood dough/filler, etc. I didn't bother checking further.

So why did the top of the soundboard look so good? It had been artificially wood-grained and was probably the best piece of
work on the whole piano.

Ah, well...

Del