I've just re-read technical bulletin #6 "Rebuilding/Reconditioning." The comment I was looking for states "Rebuilding restores the piano to original condition or better." That comment, the prospect of actually restoring a piano to "BETTER THAN ORIGINAL" really motivates me! I love rebuilding, and would not quickly negotiate away the inherent satisfaction this facet of our trade provides. At Brandon University, and the Banff Centre (if I may Denis?) we have chosen to rebuild our quality instruments rather than replace with new. Our belief (delusion, if you will) is that many of our older instruments may be of a higher original quality than we can purchase new. Also, as another colleague mentioned, we can rebuild at a fraction of replacement cost. Rebuilding is a culture, that is, it's a philosphy that must be cultivated and shared by the faculty, administration, technicians, (yes, bean counters too), and ultimately appreciated by our students. As such, even cabinet restoration becomes a source of pride, even though we out-source this part. I guess I hadn't given the alternatives much thought, and appreciate the discussion this thread has provoked, thanks Wim. Mark Cramer, Brandon University -----Original Message----- From: owner-caut@ptg.org [mailto:owner-caut@ptg.org]On Behalf Of ANRPiano@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2001 6:12 PM To: caut@ptg.org Subject: Re: replace/rebuild Wim, At Northern Illinois University nearly all of our S&S come from the late 60's - early 70's. For the past 10 years or so David Graham has been replacing the actions, we are starting on another set of hammers on some of the earlier jobs. For the past 4 years I have been restringing and replacing the underlever systems with the Renner kit. For the most part these pinblocks are holding up fairly well, a couple have some moderately loose tuning pins even after going up to 4/0 but I expect I should be able to nurse them along until funds are available for new blocks. The cost of new is certainly greater than to work we do in our case so its a fairly easy decision. BTW the concert instruments have all been rebuilt within the past few years. Andrew Remillard
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