As an investment, I would advise NOT rebuilding the piano unless it really needs it. You're chances of getting a return on your investment are much better with a reconditioning. Like William said, $7-10K is reasonable. That piano in my market would sell for between $15,000-$20,000 after reconditioning. The more you do to it the more you will have to sell it for, which means the market will be smaller. Yeah, I had been told that Steinway grands (rebuildable) were going for going for a minimum of about 5k. $7-10k works out to about what I had been thinking, with the overall condition of the piano. If you want to rebuild it for the experience, go for it! If your doing it to make money - tread carefully! Mostly experience. Experience = investment. Before checking sustain on the piano make sure all the bridge pins are seated - this sometimes makes a huge difference. Kent Webb related a story about being sent out to look at a Steinway - other technicians had tried and failed to get some sustain out of the piano. Quotes for replacing the soundboard had been given. Kent tapped in all the bridge pins, leveled the strings and it could suddenly sing again! That's why guys like him get $1000 a day plus expenses! Sometimes the expensive technician is the best bargain! I checked sustain on two notes. Why only two? I've never checked sustain before, wasn't sure if there was anything special about doing it. But what I got was 38 seconds on a note about 1.5 - 2 octaves from the bottom, and about 9 secs on a note about the same distance from the top. That might not be enough to tell anybody anything... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101028/74fa8c1b/attachment.htm>
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