"New" old uprights

[Mark Story]

I did one of these about ten to fifteen years ago - I couldn't resist the
rosewood that I saw when I scraped a bit of the old crazed, dirty varnish
off discreetly. It was in a church, and was unplayable. I shimmed the
soundboard, did some extensive bridge work, rehammered, restrung it and
refinished it. Needless to say, it was dazzling. I advertised in the paper
for around $3,500 and got nary a call. when I sent it to a store for
consignment, it sold within a week. It taught me this: if you don't have a
showroom or any other means of displaying something unusual like this, count
on having it around for a while.

Mark Story, RPT
Eastern Washington University
Cheney, Washington

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wallace Scherer" <p003520b@pb.seflin.org>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 3:14 AM
Subject: "New" old uprights


> The note by Les Bartlett about "it was my grandmother's" old upright, and
> costing $7K to restore it brought a question to my mind:
>
> Has anyone ever thought how much one of those old, ornate uprights would
> sell for new if manufactured today? I sometimes tell a customer "maybe
> between 10 and 20 thousand dollars", but I don't really have much to go
> on. Does anyone have a better estimate?
>
> Maybe some of those old, beautiful pianos really ARE worth restoring!
>
> Wally Scherer
> Lake Worth, Florida
>
> Send e-mail to: WallyTS@iname.com or
> p003520b@pb.seflin.org
> Personal Web page: <http://www.geocities.com/vienna/2411>
>