John Page wrote, "If you want an instrument to look and play exactly
like it was when it came out of the factory, why not have a replica
built?"

I am so glad you asked.  The reasons are several.  They include the fact
that a true replica cannot be built.  Also, it would cost way, way more
to build a new one.  The set up and tooling cost to duplicate an
antique piano would be prohibitive.  You would have to depend upon
newer inferior pianos that are made today of far lesser quality.

There is the other little problem: the fact that the wood that made the
older pianos does not exist any longer.  If you have purchased lumber
recently you will notice that it is all quick grown crappy lumber.
Virgin forest is what made our original instrument.  They are all gone.

Let us talk about the soundboard.  The soundboards on our antique
pianos have aged for 90 years now.  That means the microscopic wood
cells have dried out and have opened up and become tiny resonating
chambers.  Those 90-year-old soundboards cannot be replaced with
a new green soundboard and have anything like the sound our antiques
have when their 90-year-old sound board has been recrowned.

I replace soundboards with new ones only when they have been too
terribly damaged by water or by other catastrophic damage.  However,
if the water damaged soundboard can be disassembled from its ribs and
its component panels, it can be recrowned even more successfully.

I can purchase top quality full sized upright new pianos from Bechstein,
Steinway, even Baldwin.  They cost from $12,000 all the way up to over
$30,000 and they do not have player systems installed.  When they are
90 years old, I wonder if they will be as good as our present day
antiques.

DL Bullock
St. Louis
http://www.thePianoWorld.com/