Help me avoid doing any damage

[Z! Reinhardt]

1]  Decide up front how you would like this piano to serve you.  Would
anyone be trying to play it?  Or would it be for decorative purposes only?

2]  Hire a technician in your area (I believe there are lists of technicians
arranged geographically somewhere in the PTG website) to evaluate the piano
to determine whether or not it is worth doing anything with, or if it is
clinically dead.

Pianos are like a cross between a pet and a car.  Like a car, they require
ongoing maintenance, but after awhile they become so worn out and parts may
become hard to come by that it just isn't worth putting any further money
into them.  Like pets, they are members of the family, but like all pets,
they get old and pass on.

One thing to remember about us technicians, is that many of us are more
concerned with how the piano functions as a working instrument than with how
it looks.  In a word, we work from the inside out, in that refinishing the
exterior is a last step, if we do it at all.

Z! Reinhardt  RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Archibald" <PArchibald@intellitools.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 3:37 PM
Subject: Help me avoid doing any damage


Techs -

My wife's grandmother is giving us her old piano, a turn of the century
player without the player mechanism. It is also has the ugliest finish ever
applied, some sort of "antique" type thing. Ug. Anyhow, as we can't really
afford $1000 to refinish the piano, I am going to have a go at it.

Not to scare you too much, I have done a fair amount of finishing and
refinishing (furniture, boats) in my time, just never a piano. Let me
describe the piano a bit and then ask my questions.

The outer finish is a kind of smeared or sloppy brush paint thing, uneven
and I suspect not professionally applied. I hope that it was applied without
proper preparation, and will come off without much fuss. The finish
underneath is a classic glossy piano finish, showing the mahogany (I think)
underneath. I don't know why paint was put over the old (lacquer?) finish,
and it is possible that there is damage to the wood, but there really isn't
much to lose in attempting to remove the paint.

That brings me to my questions. First, what kind of finish is likely
underneath the paint, and what would be the best way to remove the paint
with minimal damage to the finish beneath? Second, if the old finish is
lacquer, what can I do to restore it? I would like to avoid complete
stripping, as I don't really want to get into staining and such.

I am not looking to create a museum piece, but I like the lacquered look,
and would really like to avoid repainting the piano, or using some sort of
flat, oil type finish (my wife is leaning that way, I hate that stuff).


I got connected to you through the Piano Tech's Guild webpage. Do you know
of any other good web pages with info I might find useful?



Paul Archibald
Intellitools, Inc

"The early bird may get the worm,
   but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese"