uprights

[robert sadowski]

Ralph,
     There's a rebuilder in Buffalo, NY that makes a business of old
uprights.  Beside the obvious reason, I'm not sure why either. Check out
their site - there they give eight good reasons to rebuild old uprights.
The address is  illos.com.

Regards,

Bob Sadowski
Erie, PA
----------
> From: ralph m martin <rmartin30@juno.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: uprights
> Date: Sunday, November 02, 1997 9:49 PM
> 
> List
> 
> Read some messages regarding rebuild of old uprights today.
> I haven't rebuilt one in years now, but just completed a Ludden & Bates
> built in the 20's. I can't see any real reason why anyone should want to
> rebuild a $100. upright, but this elderly lady did. I spent a total of
> about four hours attempting to talk her out of this folly, but she
> insisted because it had "great sentimental value". 
> 
> The instrument was rescaled, new hammers, damper felts, nearly every
> center in the piano repinned, etc. Believe me when I say that any of you
> AND I would have relegated it to the city dump site. The interesting
> part, however, is that there was still crown, positive down bearing and ,
> outside of a hail line crack along an original glue joint that was filled
> with marine epoxy, the SB was in excellent condition. The keys and
> hammers, of course, were frozen solid.
> 
> The outcome?....one VERY nice-sounding piano. The lady, though, would not
> allow me to recover the keys. I had to leave these broken, discoloured
> inories entirely alone (?). 
> 
> I wont do another one in a long time, but the interesting part of the
> whole fiasco is the sound of this piano. It souds (to my ear) fuller than
> the U1 Yamaha. It's voiced a little more mellow than the U1 because
> that's the way I usually voice them for this use and where the customer
> says they don't like a "bright piano". Frankly, outside of stage use,
> neither do I.
> 
> In this case the pay-off was not the money, but rather the sound of this
> piano after rebuilding.
> 
> just for conversation
> 
> Ralph Martin MPT