There is the question of the original quality of the piano. In the UK, at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century, there were scores of small "cottage industry" piano workshops churning out cheap quality straight strung birdcage pianos made down to a price for the low-end domestic market - the "parlor piano" for families who could just about afford one. A hundred years later, there are still lots of them about. I sometimes have to explain to the customer "look, this was a budget piano when it was made 100 years ago. Even when it was brand new, it didn't sound very good. Now that it's a century old, there is NOTHING we an do to make it sound good, and it's certainly not worth trying". Of course, if it's one of those fantastic and enormous old birdcage Bluthner uprights or equivalent, that might be a different matter. But it usually isn't! David. >Just remember, if they go for it, how much money you'll make. >One of my player rebuilds coming up was similar to your situation. The piano action needed a complete rebuild (new hammers (mice), new dampers (mice), new back checks (mice), new >catcher felt (mice) basically just about everything short of new strings, along with the player. The estimate was $5,000. For sentimental value, they agreed to do it. >So, "Don't throw out the baby, just because the bath water it cold" >Duaine -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090407/5b28becd/attachment-0001.html>
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