<DIV> <DIV> <DIV> <DIV> <DIV> <DIV> <DIV>List, sorry my last post came out difficult to read. Here it is again:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Over the past few years more and more of my annual income has come from the sale of refurbished upright pianos. I typically pay $100-300 for a piano, more if its something really special. They generally sell for between $1000 to $3500. I charge an additional $225 for the delivery and first tuning. Bench is extra. This added over $8000 to my annual income, added variety to my work, helped fill in the gaps in my tuning schedule, improved my skills as a technician, and helped families get further on their musical journey. The first thing that happens is I tap in bridge pins, give it a good tuning, and reshape the hammers. At that point I'll rate the sound quality as mediocre,fair, good, or excellent. The amount of refurbishing I do depends on the quality.. If I'm dissapointed after the initial work I'll just do a quick regulation and sell it as an economy level instrument. If it comes out with that fat, rich tone with plenty of power and sustain I'll spend a lot more time.</DIV> <DIV> I sold a Hallet & Davis a couple weeks ago for $2000 + 225 for delivery and first tuning. I bought it for $300 from the local masonic lodge. It was a very straight forward project: Reshape hammers, rebush the keys, clean and lubricate, bridle tapes, casters, rejuvenate bass strings, regulate, fill a few ivory chips, install a dampp-chaser, clean up the case with some furniture restorer.  The whole project took about 30 hours and I figure I made $1600 profit. that comes out to over $50 an hour-not bad for a young whoopersnapper like me. The people who bought it were excited! I would have personally chosen that piano over any new piano in the $3000-4000 price range. Of course here in the pacific northwest we still have a lot of very functional</DIV> old uprights do to our mild climate. In fact I have found I can accumulate them much faster than I can get fix them up! I ABSOLUTLY believe there are still many older uprights worth refurbishing and maybe even rebuilding. Listen folks these things are IRREPLACABLE. No company is making 56" uprights anymore. If people want a grand but don't have the space many of these pianos are the next best thing. I would choose a big old good quality upright over any grand 5' or under. The rebuilding industry is continuing to develop better techniques to efficiently replace soundboards, pinblocks, and actions. If by refurbishing one of these better quality old uprights you can get another 10-15 years out of it, there's a good chance that rebuilding it will actually be more affordable in the future. Darrel Fandrich's action may allow us to someday make these old pianos truly worthy of the title "Upright Grand". Ryan Sowers, RPT,  Puget Sound Chapter  </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV> <hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/spamguard/*http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail/static/protection.html">Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard</a>.