a junky piano

[John Musselwhite]

At 11:21 AM 11/9/2000 -0500, Glenn wrote:

> >Does anyone think this piano can be restored?
>
>Sure, anything can be, but why? Cost to restore would be greater than the
>piano would be worth afterwards.

Back to the restore/rebuild/remanufacture debate again, eh? Restoring it 
would be totally impractical. Even if it were Scott Joplin's personal piano 
in this condition all you could do is do some "preservation work" on it 
before putting it on display with a rope barrier around it.

Let's just talk "rebuild" on something like this. Let's say this is a 52 
inch piano  that was likely reasonably well-made even if the scaling may 
not have been the best. What does a good quality 52 inch upright sell for 
these days? A Steinway K-52 in ebony lacquer sells for $36,995 CDN dollars 
and it's nowhere near the highest-priced vertical selling these days. A 
well-rebuilt American upright of good quality should sell for half that, 
though with shiny new pianos selling for a tenth of that it might be a 
difficult sale.

>Looks like dumpster food to me.

It really depends on what make it is, whether it's an "heirloom" instrument 
and whether there's a market for it if it isn't. If the plate and the back 
assembly wood is in good shape and you have something to work with then it 
doesn't have to be "dumpster food". It would be expensive to rebuild, 
probably half the price of a new K-52 by the time you put in a board, 
bridge caps and block, but theoretically it should be a magnificent 
instrument that would have another 100 years of life left in it. That is 
especially true these days since people will be more careful now of how 
they treat the instruments compared to the years since that piano was built.

On the other hand, there are many pianos around that are better candidates 
for rebuild. There are probably enough old Steinway, Mason and Chickering 
uprights around to keep those who rebuild uprights busy for their whole 
careers without having to take on something like this. The mere fact they 
have a recognized name attached to them makes them more valuable for resale 
than just a fine old piano that no one has heard of before.

>Who knows though. We just had someone spend over $1600 to restore a
>Melodigrand 64 note spinet. A fine specimin. Cabinet was painted black with
>a brush over a limed oak finish. Cats did their duty all over it. We had to
>dublicate several pieces of the cabinet, refinish it etc. It was a "family
>heirloom" though-and the people were thrilled with it.

Cool! I have the Canadian version of that piano... called a "Cameo" and 
known here as a "chapel piano". I've also heard them called "riverboat 
pianos". Its quite a funky little piano really... and I think worth that 
kind of money even though it will never be a great instrument. Mine's in 
our rehearsal/recording studio with a PZM mic taped inside and while I'd 
never record solo piano on it it's perfect in a small Blues studio.

There is one here in town that both Ed Foote and I have tuned (and I used 
that term loosely to include "close enough for jazz") that the 
Nashville-based owner prizes as much as his Steinway O as he's written many 
hit songs on it. It's all how you look at them, I guess.

                 John

John Musselwhite, RPT    -     Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.musselwhite.com  http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary
email: john@musselwhite.com    http://www.mp3.com/fatbottom