"New" old uprights

[JIMRPT@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 5/02/2000 9:28:07 PM, Joseph wrote:

<<Jim, 
Rebuilt to me means that, among a host of other things, you replaced the
soundboard. Is that true? (Bravo, and a tip of the hat if you did!)
Anything less is not a rebuild, IMHO>>

Joseph;
 Flame suit not needful, from my viewpoint anyway. :-)
 Let's look at these items one by one.
First the soundboard question.
None of the rebuilds (upright) I have done involved replacing the 
soundboard...primarily because I don't think I would 'yet' suggest this on an 
older upright... but also because  the ones I did/have done/am doing/will do. 
 With a good clear tone throughout the scale and a sustain time in the mid to 
high twenties in the tenor and correspondingly high sustains in bass and 
treble I did/have not feel/felt that a new board and attendant expense 
thereof was warranted.  

<<"For a customer to drop a huge chunk of change into a cosmetically
improved, tonally challenged, mechanically inferior, deteriorating oldie
seems a bit pretentious and misleading by the "rebuilder in charge".">>
  
 Well I agree, 'except' for "cosmetically improved"; this is the purpose of 
case repair and refinishing isn't it?  And maybe for "mechanically inferior"; 
cause this is the purpose of complete refurbishing and or replacement of the 
action parts isn't it?  And for the "deteriorating oldie"; cause all pianos 
are by definition "deteriorating" aren't they?  other than this I agree with 
you :-) ........... I don't see anything "pretentious" about this or 
"misleading".  As to the "rebuilder in charge"
there are plenty of "rebuilders" out there and there are plenty of 
'techinicians' who 'rebuild'........ the two are not needfully one and the 
same........quite often there is a large disparity between them.  Now if you 
want to talk about .......""For a customer to drop a huge chunk of change 
into a cosmetically improved, tonally challenged, mechanically inferior, 
deteriorating"".... new piano that is a different kettle of fish. 

   There can be a vast difference between a piano that 'can' be rebuilt and 
one that 'should' be rebuilt.  As for whether a "rebuild" can be a "rebuild" 
without a sounding board replacement??...we'll have to disagree on this one 
methinks.
Just think about it for a moment...if a piano has had all action parts 
replaced with suitable parts, keys rebushed, new buttons installed, new ivory 
keytops applied, bridges replaced, new pinblock installed, all new felts 
throughout, case repaired and refinished......isn't this enough to classify 
as "rebuilt"?  Conversely if all that is done is a new soundboard w/bridges 
and restringing...... is this is enough to classify as rebuilt? What 
constitutes a "host" of other things? ...well perhaps all the 'normal' things 
for a rebuild but if something, other than the board, is left out of the 
'normal' list does this still count as a "rebuild"?

  The PTG tech sheet that covers "rebuilding" defines two levels of 
"rebuilding" complete and partial....personally I think that a piano which 
recieves a new soundboard and attendant action work/case work should be 
classified as 'remanufactured' and not "rebuilt".  This is just semantics 
anyway, isn't it?

  This is an area, i.e. terminology, where we all could do a much better job 
methinks if we could agree on a 'standard' but I won't be  aholding my 
breath...i'fn y'all don mind. :-)
No flames, just my view.
Jim Bryant (FL)