Upright Complete Rebuild Time

[Farrell]

So much talk about old uprights not being worth doing any work to. I know of
a very prominent PTG member that says he can COMPLETELY rebuild an old
upright and make a profit selling it for $7,500. The rebuilding includes
everything:

complete new action
reconditioned keys & keyframe
restrung
new bridge caps
new soundboard
new pinblock
trapwork reconditioned
refinished
back & case dissassembled and reglued

What I have described above is a new piano hand made to an old design
(although, we could certainly update some areas) with 100 year old major
structural components. We could have started with a Mason & Hamlin,
Steinway, Knabe, Weber, Bush & Lane, etc. Any one of those is obtainable for
about $500 or less.

Now, would you rather have our remanufactured piano for $7,500, a Yamaha U3
for $11,000 or a K-52 for $23,000? It just seems to me that there has to be
a market for such a creature. But I cannot believe that you can do a rebuild
like described for $7,500 and eat and pay your rent. I think you gotta be
toward the $10,000 to $12,000 range (I'm talking midwest USA dollars).
Anyone care to venture a total hour time spent with such a project? I can
figure the parts easy enough, the hours can be a little slippery for my
limited cranial capacity. Thanks for any interest/input.

Terry Farrell