When is a piano..

[Ron Nossaman]

>NOT the piano that's stated on the Fallboard?

Very often, that is the situation from day one with a new piano on a
dealer's showroom floor when the physical artifact doesn't live up to the
company advertising.

With all the cells in our body being replaced every xxx(?) years, at which
point are we no longer us? Jarvis Pharquar's prosthetic hip replacement
doesn't make him any less Jarvis, except by volume, does it? If anything,
it makes him more the Jarvis he was before his original equipment conked out.

Any parts replacement at all makes the piano non original. Most rebuilders,
given the choice, would prefer to replace parts with as high a quality, by
their personal standards, as they can get, regardless of the authenticity
of the source. Even with all replacement parts coming from the original
manufacturer, you will almost certainly get something different than what
was there originally - assuming the manufacturer is still in business and
able to supply these parts. 

I may have it wrong, but it seems to me that the real concern when this
question comes up isn't whether or not it is what it says it is, but
whether or not the customer knows what it is, and how that affects it's
perceived value and performance. What it technically is, what it says it
is, and what the owner/user thinks it is almost never agree. A truly lousy
playing and sounding instrument with a big name on the fallboard will
nearly always be judged as "better" than a better playing, better sounding
instrument with a lesser name. If they don't know what they're playing,
assessments tend to be more objective. Such being the case, rebuilders
ought to have some leeway here. For a customer's piano, leave the name
alone and make it into the best piano you can. Pianos owned by the
rebuilder for sale are something else. If the rebuilder thinks the brand
name will hinder the sale, even though it's now a far better piano than
when it was originally built, he ought to be able to erase the piano's past
identity and anonymise it. Alternately, he could put any name he likes on
the fallboard that wasn't used at some past time in an actual production
instrument. Using a known and more marketable name than the original would
obviously be misrepresentation. 

Bottom line is the name is on the furniture, and the furniture goes with
the piano. As long as the piano isn't "upgraded" by changing the name on
the furniture to something more prestigious, I don't see that much of a
problem.


Ron N