Rebuilding for Performance or Show?

[Farrell]

I have a few thoughts that I have had rambling through my head regarding the issue of rebuilding a piano with no design/materials changes, or feeling free to make some changes.

Many of us like the use the analogy of the automobile to explain some piano concepts. I find many of these analogies useful. This is another one. I can do the same thing with boats, but lets use the car example here.

Let's say you have a high performance automobile: 1969 Camaro Z-28 - pretty much all original, but its got 200,000 miles on it and is very worn out. You want to fix it up, you have money to spend, and you want to do it right.

The '69 Z-28 was the fastest (acceleration in the 1/4 mile - about 13 seconds flat) US production car ever made. Obviously, a high performance car - not even any stock Corvette could beat it at the dragstrip. It also can have good show value. Tons of Camaro clubs all over the US.

You have two paths to pursue. 

One is oriented to making the car a show-type car. The steps are obvious. Keep it all original and simply replace or recondition all parts to like-new and do all the adjustments.

The other approach would be to aim at the performance of the vehicle. Without going into details, there is a whole range of improvements/modifications that can be done to the motor, drive train, suspension, etc. to vastly improve its performance.

You want to know how many top, top, top knowledgeable, experience engineers worked to design the '69 Z-28? Lots of them. Did they know what they were doing? You bet. They were tops. Can I improve upon their work. You bet! Doesn't mean I know more than them however, by any means.

I think also when you consider that the piano has not changed much over more than 100 years, logic would have it that there is going to be room for improvement.

I guess my point is that IMHO the only reason to rigidly stick to a "reproduce exactly like original" plan is if you are doing the work for a museum or some type of showpiece where originality is specifically the goal. If performance is the goal - and I would argue that it is most of the time (or should be) - then one would likely benefit to keeping an open mind to incorporating changes as one is able and confident of the outcome.

OK, bombs away! Let me have it!

Terry Farrell