<HTML>In a message dated 4/9/01 4:47:50 PM Central Daylight Time, beckingt@mb.sympatico.ca writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I have a customer who just inherited an old Decker Bros. upright serial no. 12557. According to Pierce Atlas it was built between 1875 and 1880. It is in surprisingly good condition. It is about 35-40 cents flat. </BLOCKQUOTE> Terry I would be very careful about doing any work on this piano, until you have had a face to face conversation with the customer. The fact that a tuning pin, which is supposed to have a torque reading of 30 - 40 lbs, now is loose after turning it out only one turn, leads me to think that the others are help in place with rust and powder. Any attempt at raising pitch on this piano might result in all the pins becoming very loose. Whenever work is done on an original hundred plus year old piano, there are going to be some major problems that need to be looked at. The tuning pins and bass strings are two of them. The soundboard, the action centers, the bridges, etc., all might look OK, but what will happen when you start working on them? Prepare the customer that she might have a money pit, where keeping the piano going might wind up costing her thousands of dollars. Just my opinion Willem</HTML>