Info on 1890 Ivers and Ponds piano

[D.L. Bullock]

You wrote:
<What kind of dollars are these? U.S.? I have heard a few quotes in this
range, but I don't see <how to do it properly for anything below about $12K.
That's in U.S. dollars. Now we stated <".....looks and sounds exactly like
Grandma saw and heard it when she bought it new." I'm <assuming it looks and
sounds that way because it IS like when Grandma bought it new. New
<everything.

Yes, US Dollars are what we use in St. Louis.  Yes, new most
everything."Every flange, pin, bushing, spring...felt"

<(inc. all the little damper thingees),>

We replace all damper levers spring flange and all.

<all action parts,> Unfortunately, not possible.  We do replace hammer
butts, shanks, hammers, damper heads, all springs, backcheck felt, wires if
needed, bridle wires if needed, but wippens cannot be replaced in most
cases, stickers cannot be replaced 99% of the time.  We must clean, rebush
and refelt stickers and wippens which also get new jacks and jack flanges as
well as screw flanges.  Yes, all felt is new even if old parts must be used.
Screws are replaced usually but not always...sometimes just cleaned.  Keys
and keyframe have all new felt and sometimes new shoes for the ones that had
pulley keys. The regulation screw eyes and buttons and felts are all new.
We even replace these and hammer return springs on many of our refurbished
pianos because it improves regulatability and touch on an old original
action.

<soundboard>  Although this (along with several other widely held myths) is
something that some techs seem to think is not possible, I recrown the old
soundboard in 99% of pianos.  The remaining 1% get new soundboards for extra
charge. The old ones sound better than new spruce can sound.  Most bridges
are kept.  If I can feel like it will last another 30 years without
cracking, I keep the old bridges.  This only happens (keeping them) with
about 10% of bass bridges and 90% of treble bridges.  I usually only have to
replace pin blocks in 10% of uprights.  It is running about 95% replacement
in grands, lately.

<keybed, action brackets, and action rails - most hardware would remain, but
of course that is <refinished at the least.>

All metal parts are wire wheeled and lacquered unless they were originally
painted then they are painted again.

<And a grain-filled, hand rubbed lacquer finish. You do all that for $4K <to
$8K? >

The kind of finish is up to the customer---how much do they want to spend?
But yes finish work will crank it up toward the high end of the price range.

I have charged more than $8K on a few occasions.  My restoration of a
birdcage upright begins at $10K.  Yes, I believe we have prices that are
reasonable.  Perhaps that is why I have so much work.  Perhaps it is why I
get instruments from all over the country.  I have delivered instruments to
20 states at last count.  I know that what I do cannot be done for my prices
on either East or West coast.  Perhaps I need to increase my prices.  I will
decide that after I complete the several that are in the shop now.  Middle
America has lower home prices as well as other costs of living.

Nothing is sent out of the country, state, city or even my shop.  Except for
replating, it is all done here.  I do not know if folks who are thinking
like you are have ever done all this work on an upright or whether they are
just awed by and perhaps scared by how much work is involved in doing it.
It IS a lot of work, but when you do them like we do you learn faster ways
of doing it without cutting corners.  My customers are accustomed to having
no corner cut.  But the few folks who have been trained or have watched,
have been stunned at how fast good quality work can be done when there is
experience in the mix.  I do know this:  I do not have warranty calls and I
warranty every item we restore for five years.

Back when I had a one man shop with no phone calls or sales to deal with, I
could do all this to an upright in only a matter of about a month plus.  It
now takes several months to do one.

I have a Washburn upright player that I am completing now that was water
damaged.  We thought that a bathroom leak had dripped on the piano back for
a week or two.  When I dismantled it, I decided it had been longer than
that.  Luckily there was no rot or darkening except in the pin block.  Once
the plate was removed, the soundboard, pin block, timbers and spacer blocks
in the back all sort of fell into a pile of lumber.  It was probably the
worst I have had to restore.  However, I found that by having all the ribs
off the soundboard and having to glue all the soundboard joints and ribs
back together, I was able to control the crown just like the factory did
using my dry room and reshaping the ribs before regluing them.  It was a
fine challenge, but the finished product will be worth it.  The "new" old
soundboard rings loudly like a tympani when I hit it with my fist.  I will
have it strung this week and I can hardly wait to hear it.  It got a new pin
block, new bridges and all the timbers got to be cleaned of glue and glued
all back together.  It has taken longer than expected to complete.  The
customer will be happy to hear it again as it is a family heirloom that will
be delivered to the son of the present owner when it is complete.  It will
be a fine passing down of a family treasure.  Probably about half of my
restorations of all kinds are people restoring an instrument for a gift to
children or children restoring Grandmas piano to help them remember Grandma
when she is no longer around.  I suspect that the added age on the
soundboard will make it sound even better than Grandma heard it when the
spruce was only a few years old.

I will soon have a new website up that will be much more informative than my
present one.  It will try to answer many of the questions that folks may
have about upright rebuild myths.

D.L. Bullock
www.thepianoworld.com
St. Louis