On 6/29/97, "David M. Porritt" <dporritt@post.cis.smu.edu> wrote: << I guess my problem with these things is that they appear to be so well restored and that implies a certain quality of work that they don't have. I'm trying to come up with an analogy that fits and I can't because there is no other large purchase that people make where they know so little about the inner workings. >> It's up to us to open the piano up for them, shine a flashlight in there, and show how really skin-deep these pieces of work are. One of my favorite selling points is that any of these components (board, shanks, whatever) has a certain working life, and how much fresh material you decide to put into the piano during a rebuilding will determine (material and workmanship being good and all other things being equal) how far into the future you can send that piano before anyone has to worry about these components. A good rebuilding should "throw" a piano several decades into the future. A few summer's back I added a note to the bottom of a tuning invoice: "I'm sure you'll enjoy what this piano has left to give". It was a 110 year-old Knabe upright with popping bass strings, a ripped bass bridge, and shriveled ivory (among other things). But the grandmother who owned it loved it. Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter "Tomorrow is going to be a 'Say Something' Hat Day. " Partick Swazey in "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything....."
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