And just to follow up, I don't think I implied that the Knabe wasn't anything special, just there there were no specific obstacles I know of. Knabe, Chickering, or one of so many others, may not have been anything to write home about off the line but the beauty of rebuilding is that we get to make it what we (and our client) want. A Chickering can be rebuilt into a very high quality piano, just like a Knabe, Mason, Baldwin, Miller, AB Chase, J.Bauer, S&S, and on and on........ It's not always worth it financially from a Fair Market Value perspective so we can't justify the work on spec as rebuilders, but from a musical perspective, if someone owns the carcass and they are attached, why not? So long as the client understands that a non S&S rebuild likely won't have a FMV that equals the cost of the quality rebuild, it can certainly have equal or greater performance capabilities. A non-issue in this case as the owner (Nora) is the client, but otherwise if we are honest and up front with our clients about the before and after market and musical values of a rebuild candidate, it's smooth sailing. William R. Monroe On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Roger Gable <roger at gablepiano.com> wrote: > Nora, > I agree with Barbara and William that these pianos are not much to write > home about. Over the years I find one underlying negative aspect to piano > rebuilding; the customer is expecting more than the technician or piano can > produce. This manifests itself when the technician is expecting more than is > possible through naiveté or outright deception. Engaging in such practice > can damage your reputation in short order. There was a well known PTG member > in this area who engage in a "rebuild" of a turn-of-the-century Steinway > "A". The job entailed a new action and restringing. When the job was > completed, the customer -- a well to do client - was grossly disappointed > with the $10,000 expenditure. Why? Any seasoned technician could easily tell > that the underlying problem was that it needed a new soundboard. > Subsequently, the customer sent the piano out to a well known rebuilding > technician, yielding a greater than expected outcome. > Here in the Pacific Northwest, pianos live a much longer viable life > than in areas such as the East coast or Gulf states. A 1926 Knabe may, in a > long shot, be economically feasible if it lived in this area all its life. > But I think, no matter how the economics spell out, that the end result > could be disappointing. Nora, don't take this personally, but your asking > the question suggests that you may have limited experience rebuilding. > If so, be careful. > > Roger Gable > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101008/448e1be7/attachment-0001.htm>
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