[pianotech] Ny Times article on pianos

[David Love]

It reminds me of the classic situation when you go to assess a piano and it
needs everything: new action, soundboard, damper system, etc.  They respond
by telling you that they can't understand it, it was supposedly "rebuilt" by
the person they bought it from.  

Let's be clear, I'm talking about full on restoration/rebuilding.  Anything
you can do in any part of the country, regardless of regional economic
differences, for under $1000 is not rebuilding or restoration.  It is
exactly as you've described, a few repairs and some cosmetic clean up.
Let's not confuse the two.  If the piano can be made serviceable by a day's
work then that's one thing.  But I don't think that the discussion that Joe
and I were having was along these lines.  

Also, you can't simply lump all new pianos that are inexpensive as "new
Chinese pianos". There are quite a variety at various levels and many of the
inexpensive but reasonable pianos are not coming out of China or Asia but
out of eastern Europe.  

Let's not oversimplify this discussion or make it into something that it
wasn't intended to be.  An old piano that is in otherwise good shape but can
be brought into very playable condition with a day's work is one thing.  An
old piano that requires a complete rebuilding (do I need to define that?) is
something quite different.  

I see many pianos that are giveaways that I advise people not to take
because there is no free lunch.  Further, I not infrequently walk away from
freebies that people pick up on Craig's list because I don't see throwing
good money after bad even if it's being thrown my way.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Douglas Gregg
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 5:05 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Ny Times article on pianos

I see a lot of old pianos that need new homes. I take a few in for
restoration, I repair a few for a lot less than thousands. Some I tell
others about and they take them home and hopefully eventually ask me to make
them better. My approach will probably sound like blasphemy to many
restorers out there. However, there are a lot of pianos that can be made
quite serviceable for under $1000. Some of these old pianos have seen very
little use and need mostly some cleaning, lubricating, and French polishing.
French polishing can bring an old piano back to beautiful condition in 6-8
hours. there is no comparison to refinishing prices. That is my way of
conserving this resource. AND the old pianos sound a lot better than a new
chinese piano, period.

Doug Gregg
Classic Piano Doc