Damon Atchison wrote:

> I help people to find a player piano and then I just fix the supply
> bellows and wind motor to get it running again.  This hasn't failed
> me yet.

I hate to rain on your parade, Damon.  But it _will_ fail you, and very
soon, at that.  You can fix the supply bellows and wind motor and some
player pianos will play for a few years, weeks or days.  But it WILL
fail.

First will be the note pneumatics.  When they play a while the old, hard
rubber will fall off the cloth, beginning at the folds.  The cloth will
begin to separate at the folds which will leave you with several dangling
pneumatic boards attached to the stack only by their fingers..  Some of
the rubber will fall onto the keys, but most of it will end up in your
beautifully restored bellows system.  Then you just have to recover the
pneumatics or you can add an electric motor.

When they play a while, the valve leather will begin to be sucked into
your beautifully restored bellows system, one powdery granule at a time,
so you fix them.  Then the pouches will blow out one at a time and you
fix them.

Then a few years after you repair the valves and the pouches, the gaskets
will begin to leak.  Then you go in again to fix that.  You now think
that you are safe, right?  Wrong....the leather nuts on the pneumatic
fingers are now stripped out and the felt bushings in the finger to the
push rods are worn through and they clatter or worse, shatter.

At the same time the piano is wearing out to the point that all the felts
are worn through and also the worn hammers sound like wood striking the
strings.  And what about that crack in the soundboard, it is getting
bigger and is beginning to rattle.  There are also a few ribs loose that
are beginning to buzz.  It also is found to need tuning about every other
month, since it no longer holds a tune well.

Also the bass strings are about dead and the volume down there fades out
because the bridge has come unglued.

After all this, how many times have you had to tear into the piano?  Each
of these things fails at a different time.  Basically, you can make a
career out of return trips to 3-4 pianos like this one.  Is there any
question why player pianos have a reputation for always needing technical
work done on them.

This is why our shop does only complete restorations, soundboard, action,
player, bellows.  We know if we do it this way, we have NO return trips
except to tune regularly.  The piano keeps its good, solid, trouble-free
reputation.  It is also known as a good quality piano that any concert
musician would proudly play.  It will stay in tune, solid as a rock.  We
warranty for 5 years, but I know from experience that we could just as
easily warranty for 20 years.  A well restored player will stay trouble
free for a generation to hand down to the grandchildren.

No, this is not a cheap job.  After we get through restoring such a piano
the customer has spent just under $10,000.00 including finish work.  I am
very apologetic that it costs so much to do that, and if I knew of a way
to do it any cheaper and faster, I would do it.  But I will not
compromise the historic value of the instruments by installing some
short-lived plastic abomination to replace wood, felt, and leather.
I know many technicians who could not make a living doing this, because
they thought it should not cost so much.  I cut my fees as low as I can
and try to stay in business.  Even at these prices I have never wanted
for work.  I now have a 2 year waiting list and people waiting to get
on my waiting list.

Consider what a new similar piano costs without a player in it.  The
closest new pianos I have found to the standard old uprights that had
players in them, are the Bechstein uprights.  One of those costs
$25,000.00.  Steinway makes a good upright for about $19,000.00 Baldwin
is over $10,000.  Some brands do not even make the full sized upright for
any price. This means that the old, upright, correctly restored player
piano is still a bargain after paying $10,000.00 for the restoration.

I commend you on your efforts to get working player pianos into peoples
hands.  We all know that feeling.  That is where we all began.  But keep
a copy of this and in five years read it again.  I suspect you will be
shaking your head and muttering to yourself, "He was right after all."  I
know you are probably peeved at me right now, but the truth hurts
sometimes.  When I was in your shoes 25 years ago, you could just replace
tubing and hose and the player would play for years.  Nowadays, the
instruments are just too old for that.

And keep collecting those player parts.  I have an extensive collection
that has allowed me to DE-gut a several players. If you find one of those
trash players that is a good name or an art case,  call me, I might just
transport that one.  Those are rare.

D. L. Bullock     Piano World    St. Louis