cracked plate

[John Musselwhite]

At 08:19 PM 15/02/96 -0700, Richard West wrote:

>I have a Steinway M that has had a cracked plate for more than twenty
>years and has had no problems with tuning stability.  The crack is in
...
>worse, but still hasn't caused a problem.  The piano is getting to the
>point where major action work is going to have to be done.  I've been
>thinking about selling the piano for what I could get, but I know I
>couldn't get much.  So I wondered if it would be possible to install a
...
>Is this a project I should consider?  Given the price of new Steinways,

Just for information's sake, a new M in satin ebony is around $32K (in NYC).

>I can't help but think my M could be salvaged and save the price of a new
>one.  I will probably contract the work with a rebuilder that has more
>skill in this area than I do, but I'm still not sure it's worth doing.

My personal suggestion would be to contact the factory and just send the
piano to Long Island and have the Steinway Restoration Shop install a new
plate, pinblock, soundboard and possibly, a new action and keys. The cost of
having the factory do the work is often very close to what a good rebuilder
would charge and they have the advantage of the factory resources,
especially when a new plate is involved.

The piano probably would then be worth somewhere around $22K US as opposed
to next to nothing. While it may cost you 16K to do it (just a guess on my
part) you'd still be further ahead since the piano will be on Steinway's
records as having been "Factory Restored" and will, for all intents and
purposes, be "new". Future owners will have more confidence in that
appellation than saying it was "rebuilt at some time" in even the most
prestigious private shop.

Or, you could weld the plate and rebuild it yourself, but its value would
probably be less than half that (IMO). It's your call as to what you want to
invest and what the return would be.

BTW, the Steinway restoration shop is quite an interesting place. Last time
I was there they had just finished doing some restoration work to George
Gershwin's piano (seeing and touching THAT was a treat!) and amongst the
Victorian and "vintage" grands were beautiful art-case pianos in the process
of being restored. If you're ever in NYC, take the factory tour... it's well
worth it!

Good luck with your piano!

                        John

John Musselwhite, RPT
Calgary, Alberta Canada
musselj@cadvision.com