At 11:21 AM 11/9/2000 -0500, Glenn wrote: > >Does anyone think this piano can be restored? > >Sure, anything can be, but why? Cost to restore would be greater than the >piano would be worth afterwards. Back to the restore/rebuild/remanufacture debate again, eh? Restoring it would be totally impractical. Even if it were Scott Joplin's personal piano in this condition all you could do is do some "preservation work" on it before putting it on display with a rope barrier around it. Let's just talk "rebuild" on something like this. Let's say this is a 52 inch piano that was likely reasonably well-made even if the scaling may not have been the best. What does a good quality 52 inch upright sell for these days? A Steinway K-52 in ebony lacquer sells for $36,995 CDN dollars and it's nowhere near the highest-priced vertical selling these days. A well-rebuilt American upright of good quality should sell for half that, though with shiny new pianos selling for a tenth of that it might be a difficult sale. >Looks like dumpster food to me. It really depends on what make it is, whether it's an "heirloom" instrument and whether there's a market for it if it isn't. If the plate and the back assembly wood is in good shape and you have something to work with then it doesn't have to be "dumpster food". It would be expensive to rebuild, probably half the price of a new K-52 by the time you put in a board, bridge caps and block, but theoretically it should be a magnificent instrument that would have another 100 years of life left in it. That is especially true these days since people will be more careful now of how they treat the instruments compared to the years since that piano was built. On the other hand, there are many pianos around that are better candidates for rebuild. There are probably enough old Steinway, Mason and Chickering uprights around to keep those who rebuild uprights busy for their whole careers without having to take on something like this. The mere fact they have a recognized name attached to them makes them more valuable for resale than just a fine old piano that no one has heard of before. >Who knows though. We just had someone spend over $1600 to restore a >Melodigrand 64 note spinet. A fine specimin. Cabinet was painted black with >a brush over a limed oak finish. Cats did their duty all over it. We had to >dublicate several pieces of the cabinet, refinish it etc. It was a "family >heirloom" though-and the people were thrilled with it. Cool! I have the Canadian version of that piano... called a "Cameo" and known here as a "chapel piano". I've also heard them called "riverboat pianos". Its quite a funky little piano really... and I think worth that kind of money even though it will never be a great instrument. Mine's in our rehearsal/recording studio with a PZM mic taped inside and while I'd never record solo piano on it it's perfect in a small Blues studio. There is one here in town that both Ed Foote and I have tuned (and I used that term loosely to include "close enough for jazz") that the Nashville-based owner prizes as much as his Steinway O as he's written many hit songs on it. It's all how you look at them, I guess. John John Musselwhite, RPT - Calgary, Alberta Canada http://www.musselwhite.com http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary email: john@musselwhite.com http://www.mp3.com/fatbottom
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