Restoring your first piano
By Michael Concordia
Hi Wilson. Just a few comments that might be helpful in deciding to buy and restore or buy a restored mechanical instrument (my experience is limited to player pianos). I would venture to say that if you possess the patience and skill to do fine woodworking then you probably would do a very decent job of restoring a 'regular' player piano. Some of your skills will certainly come in handy, however, there are many other skills to develop (note the recent digest talk on using hot glue, for example).
There are some very good books on the subject by Arthur Reblitz, which will give a beginner a very good idea of what's involved. I'm sorry that I don't have the exact titles to give you here (my books are being borrowed), but I'm sure someone reading the Digest can.
I mentioned a 'regular' player as opposed to a reproducing player, such as an Ampico or Duo-Art. The reproducers (as in reproducing dynamics and tempo of the original performance) are significantly more complicated. I think most would agree that some practice rebuilding a simpler instrument would be a good idea before trying to tackle something of this order.
Finding an old player to restore should not be too difficult. I found two of them in my local paper (south Florida) over the last two years. Do keep in mind that it is a tremendous amount of work to do a complete restoration, even on a simple upright player. If you get into it thinking to make a profit I would advise against keeping track of hours spent. I have one player for sale now and will be lucky to make $1.00 per hour for my time! It is a lot of fun and very satisfying to bring one back to life; an experience you won't get if buying a restored instrument. Hope this helps.
Michael Concordia
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(Message sent Fri 6 Dec 1996, 04:14:51 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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