In answer to Damon's question concerning dark finishes, most of the
finishes were not extremely dark on the old pianos.  Heat (usually wood
with the resultant dust and ash) and dirt along with the normal finish
aging process causes the original shellac or shellac/lacquer finish to
turn very dark.

I don't normally strip the old finish completely off, instead I test
it to see if it is shellac or shellac lacquer, then if the finish is
restorable, I clean the old finish using denatured alcohol (which
causes shellac to run and regain it's gloss) or a combination of
denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner for the shellac/lacquer finishes.
It's a rather involved process but it can come out very nice looking
when it's done and you can also save the old fallboard decals in that
manner.

If the finish is too dirty or too poor (test by scratching an obscure
spot with a penny, if it scratches all the way through it won't restore
properly) or if there is a lot of wax melted into the old finish,
I still use the denatured alcohol and remove the old finish to the base
coat to rebuild it with the original style (shellac or shellac lacquer
with the correct stain mixed in the shellac for proper coverage) so the
resultant product looks very much like the original.

The piano pictured on my web site [below] was also very dark but the
restored finish is not.  This one had a shellac finish and I used the
technique I was describing to bring back the original.

I hope this is of some assistance to you, Damon, or anyone else who is
interested in improving their piano's looks.  I'm sure there are others
who also have some good restoration techniques that work well that can
help you out as well.

Dan Armstrong
http://www.uslink.net/~pianodan/index.html