It reminds me of the classic situation when you go to assess a piano and it needs everything: new action, soundboard, damper system, etc. They respond by telling you that they can't understand it, it was supposedly "rebuilt" by the person they bought it from. Let's be clear, I'm talking about full on restoration/rebuilding. Anything you can do in any part of the country, regardless of regional economic differences, for under $1000 is not rebuilding or restoration. It is exactly as you've described, a few repairs and some cosmetic clean up. Let's not confuse the two. If the piano can be made serviceable by a day's work then that's one thing. But I don't think that the discussion that Joe and I were having was along these lines. Also, you can't simply lump all new pianos that are inexpensive as "new Chinese pianos". There are quite a variety at various levels and many of the inexpensive but reasonable pianos are not coming out of China or Asia but out of eastern Europe. Let's not oversimplify this discussion or make it into something that it wasn't intended to be. An old piano that is in otherwise good shape but can be brought into very playable condition with a day's work is one thing. An old piano that requires a complete rebuilding (do I need to define that?) is something quite different. I see many pianos that are giveaways that I advise people not to take because there is no free lunch. Further, I not infrequently walk away from freebies that people pick up on Craig's list because I don't see throwing good money after bad even if it's being thrown my way. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Douglas Gregg Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 5:05 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Ny Times article on pianos I see a lot of old pianos that need new homes. I take a few in for restoration, I repair a few for a lot less than thousands. Some I tell others about and they take them home and hopefully eventually ask me to make them better. My approach will probably sound like blasphemy to many restorers out there. However, there are a lot of pianos that can be made quite serviceable for under $1000. Some of these old pianos have seen very little use and need mostly some cleaning, lubricating, and French polishing. French polishing can bring an old piano back to beautiful condition in 6-8 hours. there is no comparison to refinishing prices. That is my way of conserving this resource. AND the old pianos sound a lot better than a new chinese piano, period. Doug Gregg Classic Piano Doc
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