<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content=Word.Document name=ProgId> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16544" name=GENERATOR> <META content="Microsoft Word 11" name=Originator><LINK href="cid:filelist.xml@01C80D11.ED36DD20" rel=File-List> <STYLE>@font-face { font-family: Bookman Old Style; } @page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin: .5in; mso-footer-margin: .5in; mso-paper-source: 0; } P.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-style-parent: ""; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } LI.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-style-parent: ""; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } DIV.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-style-parent: ""; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } A:link { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } SPAN.MsoHyperlink { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } A:visited { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } SPAN.EmailStyle17 { COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-style-type: personal-compose; mso-style-noshow: yes; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial } SPAN.SpellE { mso-style-name: ""; mso-spl-e: yes } DIV.Section1 { page: Section1 } </STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY lang=EN-US style="tab-interval: .5in" vLink=purple link=blue bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Brian,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In short, I'd say yes, it's still a pig.  Chances are it's probably about a 5 footer, yes?  You're not going to get "big, rich sound" out of a 5 foot anything.  You can get a "bigger, richer sound" than what it currently has, but certainly you'd need to be cautious about promising too much.  If you did a $40K redesign/rebuild, you might make even that piano sound pretty good, but why?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If it were a 6 footer or so, maybe some hope and worth improving.  Just my opinion.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>William R. Monroe</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>  </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV class=Section1> I have a client who, several years ago, bought a 1920’s Wurli Grand off of e-bay.  I have been working on it regularly, tuning every 6 months so it is now up to A440. I have also reshaped the hammers.  There are a couple slight cracks in the soundboard.  The keys are “sloppy” compared to status of what they should be.  I am sure that many of you have run into a similar instrument.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The client now wants to talk about what can be done to bring back the “big, rich sound” of a grand.  She wants to discuss string replacement as a way of getting her “grand sound”.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Is this even worthwhile?  I am afraid of doing the restringing only to have the sound fall short of what the client wants.   Should I consider the saying “Even if you put a dress and make-up on a pig…it’s still a pig.”?<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Brian P. Doepke, (dep-kee)<o:p></o:p> R.P.T. (Registered Piano Technician)<o:p></o:p> AAA Piano Works, Inc.<o:p></o:p> Piano Tuning-Repair-Purchase Consults<o:p></o:p> 260.417.1298<o:p></o:p> 260.432.2043<o:p></o:p>     www.aaapianoworks.com<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>