Hi Ron, This one is a rather interesting thread. And there's a lot of peripheral issues sitting on the shelves in the back throwing rocks at us! :-) Insurance is a complicated sort of business, and 'being insured' doesn't always mean the same thing. Some people are insured to cover the value of what they have, meaning if they have a $100 junky upright, they're entitled to $100, not a brand new <insert appropriate name brand> upright piano. Some people are insured for 'full replacement' (or whatever they might call it) so that they ARE entitled to the new<insert appropriate name brand> upright piano. As for the soundboard cracking 'caused' by the earthquake, rough move, or other stressful moment in the life of the piano, I had a thought. In normal environmental conditions, a piano will fail to be a viable instrument over time, period. Due to changes in seasons (temp & RH level fluctuations), deterioration of wooden components and glue joints, compression / tension of wood (soundboards, pinblocks, etc.), perhaps even changes to the steel wire ??, given enough time, the piano will become an unusable instrument, played or not. The stresses that occur, such as earthquakes, rough moves, etc., are only factors in that they will accelerate the aging / deterioration process. If a soundboard is cracked anew after an earthquake, it probably would have cracked in similar fashion if no earthquake had taken place due to other perhaps more extended circumstances, but it would deteriorate. The idea that if no external 'damage' occurs to a piano, it will not deteriorate, is flawed. It will. Perhaps not as fast, but it will. It occurs to me that the job of technician called upon to estimate damage in these cases is really estimating how much of the usable life of that instrument has been taken away, as well as what would be required to bring it back to it's original condition. Unfortunately, we usually can't bring it back to it's condition before the quake / fall / rough handling. (Ever tried to make 'half a repair'?) We either have to make a proper repair, or try to patch in some way, neither of which brings it to exactly the same place as it did before it was traumatized. That's where the insurance companies come in. It is messy. And there's the infinite number of personalities of piano owners, the almost infinite attitudes of the insurance company professionals, and a pretty wide range of personalities among the piano technicians who are called to 'evaluate' these things. I say, collect as much information as you can, give your honest opinions, and assume your opinions will be scrutinized by other technicians as well as the insurance company. If someone doesn't like my / your opinion, let them get one from someone else. If they look long enough, they'll find any opinion they want. That's what came to my mind. Take it for what it's worth. Brian Trout Quarryville, PA btrout@desupernet.net
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