Sir, Judging by the nature of your post I would speculate that you are not a technician, but rather an enthusiastic amateur who wants to go the "do it yourself" route. Please DO NOT take this personally, but from your description I'd say what you have here is an 800 pound paper weight. Old players are primarily from the 1920s era and rarely require anything less than a complete restoration to make them pianos again. With the player system removed it is worth even less, probably next to nothing. The only exception might be if it happens to be a Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, or other notable brand that would sustain some of it's value. I would not waste my time on it. Just to be absolutely certain I would encourage you to have a local tech come and take a look see. Unfortunately the "grandmother hand-me-down" piano is a very common tale. I have had many clients go through hours of intense work stripping down and refinishing their piano. Then they call me to "tune it". What I find is an action that is so deteriorated it is unserviceable, a sound board with more cracks in it then a California fault line, strings more rusted than an Iowa cattle fence, and about as much crown as a sheet of glass. (Pardon me while I wax poetic here, I just couldn't help it). In other words what they have is a "really pretty paper weight." I'm not trying to discourage you, if you feel it is worth it to YOU than go for it, just beware of what you are getting yourself into. Good Luck. Rob Goodale, RPT Las Vegas, NV Paul Archibald wrote: > Techs - > > My wife's grandmother is giving us her old piano, a turn of the century > player without the player mechanism. It is also has the ugliest finish ever > applied, some sort of "antique" type thing. Ug. Anyhow, as we can't really > afford $1000 to refinish the piano, I am going to have a go at it.
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