To respond to JW Miller,

Your P.A. Starck player is as good a piano as any other and better than
some.  A good shop will have no problem restoring your piano even in
such bad shape.  We here at Piano World do the same extensive restoration
to your piano as to one that is in fully "piano-functioning" condition.
We don't care that the piano action does not work because we are going
to replace all the parts except the sticker and wippen stick .  I say
that because the wippen is always detached from the jack and reglued
with either new or restored original jacks.  Often the bridle wire and
backcheck wires are replaced and, of course, all felt replaced on wippen
or sticker.

Our refinisher will completely restore all veneer and finish.  If yours
is bad enough it could be ebonized or lacquered some other color to match
your decor.(So it is not original, keep the customer happy)  We have had
uprights with major portions of veneer burned off and they looked as
good as new with their all new veneer.  We don't care how many cracks
are in the soundboard.  They only help us return the crown to the soundboard.
Some pianos come to us with 3/8" reverse crown in the soundboard.  Those
soundboards go thunk when you strike it with the heel of your hand.  When
we finish recrowning, those boards ring like a tympani head.  Your piano
is not likely in that bad a shape.  We often have new bridges made if
the old ones are badly cracked.  But we know that even if the bridges
are in good shape, we WILL have to pop apart the bass bridge and apron
and glue and screw them back together.  We do that even if we merely
refurbish the piano.  On rare occasions we replace pinblock in uprights.
Always in grands.

As far as player goes, we simply replace EVERY piece of felt, leather,
rubber, and cloth in the player system and regulate it to the original
specs.  If it ain't perfect,. it ain't finished.  This is not a request
for more business, as our shop has a 2 year waiting list.  We also do
many other instruments that "can't be restored!" including square grands
and bird cage/parchment actions.

D. L. Bullock  Piano World  St. Louis