Restore 1900 Stieff Upright?

[Chris Currie]

Greetings, pianotechs!  As a layman, I profited immensely from reading the
archives of this list for several months while researching the purchase of
an old upright piano for our home.  We finally found a 1900 Stieff, original
everything (or what was left of it), in a home near Baltimore, and bought it
for the princely sum of $300.  We love it in spite of its scratched and
peeling case and less-than-ideal sound.  Now, however, my wife is taking
lessons, and we've found that tuning the darn thing results in numerous
broken strings (and our tuner is tuning it a half-tone flat).  There are
other problems, too, so he's recommending a rebuild, and that's the reason
I'm posting today.

I know from reading this list and from a couple calls my wife made yesterday
that rebuilding/restoring this old Stieff would be a several-thousand dollar
proposition.  My question is this:  Is it possible to rebuild such a piano
so that it resembles what it was when new?  After all, for that kind of
investment, I could get a spanking new piano; I'm not sure I'd want to make
a similar investment to bring my old, somewhat beat-up piano to the sound
and quality of a piano built yesterday.  On the other hand, we might part
with those dollars to give us something that is similar to the character of
the instrument when it was built (and many folks in these parts think the
old Stieff uprights were much superior to what's built today).

Some questions in this vein:

*  Are there new parts available that can approximate the old ones?

*  What can one do about "legacy sytems," for lack of a better term, that
are no longer put in pianos?  I'm thinking especially of the lost-motion
compensation apparatus on our Stieff, which seems to be mostly missing.

*  Do you need to find a tech with special experience and skills in old
Stieffs, or at least old pianos, so that they'll understand and successfully
repair the antique action to the character of the original?  Or should any
good tech be able to do the job?

*  What about the case?  Is it best to leave it alone (as antique dealers
would recommend for original "black" finishes), or can it/should it be
refinished (assuming we could even afford this)?

*  I understand that many old uprights just simply aren't worth restoring,
or simply can't be.  Do you think a 1900 Stieff is a promising candidate for
such a project?

*  If this does turn out to be a viable project, can you refer me to any
pianotechs who have the experience/expertise to do a job like this?  We live
in the Washington-Baltimore area.

I appreciate any comments or advice you might have, and wish you all well in
your esteemed profession!

Chris Currie
c.currie@ieee.org