Hi Nora, On the issue of "is it still.....?" No, of course it isn't, but there is a often false premise at work here. I like to see it as a sliding scale rather than a "if you do this, it's no longer a _____." Anything any technician has ever done to the piano changes the nature of it's original state. The false premise is that it is always desirable to retain every bit of originality that ever existed in a particular piano. Excepting very unique, historically worthy instruments, my philosophy in rebuilding any piano is to use whatever parts and methods necessary to achieve a desired goal. The goal is defined by your client, with your guidance. If the goal is to keep everything as original and historically accurate as possible, then that will be your guide. If your goal is to make the most musical instrument possible (within whatever tonal desires your client has) then that will be your guide, and originality is of no concern. Ultimately it is a decision that is defined by your goals. If there is one statement that I've kept with me from my time in graduate school, it is this, "You MUST first define your goal. Your goal with then define your process." Nothing extraordinary in a 1920's Knabe that I can think of either. William R. Monroe On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 11:50 AM, nora somer <gurlieshop at gmail.com> wrote: > Hello all, > > Any hints, tips, FYIs, or sage words of wisdom for restoring a 5'8" 1926 > Knabe grand? Is there anything special (inherent to this piano) I should > look out for and address in the restoration process? > > Philosophical question: is it still a 1926 Knabe if little things unique > to a Knabe of that time period are changed (i.e., replacing the center rail > key pins and key buttons with modern ones)? If it's not a flaw or poor > design, I just think it would be cooler to have the original design, but > what a hassle it would be for replacing key buttons and bushings! What are > your thoughts? > > Thanks in advance, > > Nora Somer RPT > SLC UT Chapter > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101008/e84cd421/attachment.htm>
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