Rob Back in the late 1800's and early 1900's, piano manufacturing was the single biggest industry in the USA. Anyone who had any kind of woodworking experience opened up a piano shop. All they had to do was get action companies and plate makers to send them the insides, and they were in business. Starr was one of many such companies in the Midwest. I've tuned many of them in St. Louis, and although they were OK, they were nothing to get excited about. If the customer does have a "new for old" rider on his home owner insurance, then I guess the owner is entitled to a new instruments. But back then, the only uprights that were being made were at least 5" tall. That doesn't mean they are entitled to a new 60" or 52" upright. I would say anything in the 45" to 48" range would be comparable. Looking at the list of comparable new instruments, any of them in the $4000 - $6000 range would qualify. Wim. -----Original Message----- From: Rob McCall <rob at mccallpiano.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Mon, Jun 25, 2012 8:17 pm Subject: [pianotech] 1904 Starr Upright Greetings, I was called in to do an appraisal for what was supposed to have been smoke damage on a 1904 Starr Upright (Made in Indiana). I'll let the photos speak for themselves as to the level of "smoke" damage. :-) They said that when they went to move the piano out of the house, it fell apart on them. No surprise there, given that the piano was on fire and the fire department had to put it out. These pictures are more for your amusement... :-) My real question is this... They want to know what it would cost to replace this piano with an identical 1904 Starr upright for insurance purpose, and what might be a comparable upright today. I have a pretty good idea of the various grades the new upright could be, but I'm not sure where this piano stood in it's day as far as the quality and prestige of the piano. So would this piano have been at the lower end, middle or higher end of the spectrum? I'm guessing one of the first two by appearances but I wanted to appeal to the group as a whole to get a collective idea. Anyone have any Starr experience? Either way, I know it's not much, but I wanted to make sure I got it right... The owner is claiming it's worth enough for me to go out and buy a brand new Steinway M... :-) Regards, Rob McCall McCall Piano Service, LLC www.mccallpiano.com Murrieta, CA 951-698-1875 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20120626/39ef35ea/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpg Size: 237757 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20120626/39ef35ea/attachment-0002.jpg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpg Size: 131040 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20120626/39ef35ea/attachment-0003.jpg>
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