Hello Henry, You are fortunate that most of your work is on previously
unrestored players. It seems like the majority of rebuilding today is
on previously "restored" instruments whose description is very much
like yours. There is no better (or faster) way to learn what not to
do than to have to undue the damage done in the past by previous work.
Your work should leave the instrument every bit as easily worked on
by the next restorer as it was when it left the factory. I have just
completed restoring a Simplex that had been totally rebuilt 25 or 30
years ago (unit pneumatics repouched with insufficient dip) and
everything glued back together with Elmer's glue. This restoration
took twice as long to do as it would have if it had been virgin to
start with. I was able to get a little premium for the extra work,
but if I had charged for all the extra time, the piano would have been
scrapped rather than restored.
The satisfaction of doing it right, even after disastrous previous
work, is at least partial compensation for some extra work.
Bob Hunt
Kennebunk, Maine
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