I have to agree with Stephen Kent Goodman on most points here,
but not all.

First, I want to state I agree everybody should start with an
instrument of below zero value (do these exist?).  I started with
a very simple plain player piano but that could have been different
as I had totally no idea what I was buying at the time.

After that I did a much more complicated Hupfeld player with a
complicated 73/88-note switch.  The Hupfeld systems work very well
when restored properly, but every glitch will be noticed.  I'm not
fully able to restore player pianos until that Hupfeld works perfectly,
which it doesn't yet after three years of working on it occasionally.
(It isn't my own instrument so I can't work on it as much as I'd
like to.  It's getting close, though.)

Now I'm working on a Hupfeld Vorsetzer and a Steck pedal electric
Duo-Art, both not instruments for starters, I agree.  But even though
I don't consider myself anything even near an expert, I took up the
challenge.  Not because I know I can -- I'll still have to find that
out -- but because I know what I'm doing.  That is, I know what _not_
to do.  I know how to determine what needs to be done, I know how it
has to be done, but that doesn't say I can do it.  I'll have to find
that out myself.

I think Stephen has a point in trying first on scrap wood, but I don't
see the problem of working on the 'real thing', as long as you use the
right materials and do it the right way (or at least try to do it the
right way).  'Undoing' it is no different than 'undoing' the original.
With this I mean if you did it wrong the first time, just try again,
and again, and again until you either give up or get it right.

In my opinion, if you know that you're doing it right, you can't do
much 'wrong' to these instruments.  With the guidance of Art Reblitz's
book, "Rebuilding the Player Piano," and the NPV (Nederlandse Pianola
Vereniging = Dutch Pianola Society) 'restoration days' four times a
year, you can learn a lot.  Working under the eye of a professional
supervising the situation is a great way to learn.  It's the one thing
the Reblitz book can't do: to correct you if you do it wrong.

I totally agree with the opinion of leaving the instruments alone when
you _don't_ know what you're doing, or when you, working on one of your
first instruments, know it all better then the books or the experts.

Stephen said, "Don't take your arrogance and ignorance and lack of
technique out on an innocent antique reproducing piano, coin-operated
piano or orchestrion."  I also agree with this, but I'd like to add
the following:

If you handle the instruments with care and respect instead of
arrogance and ignorance, the lack of technique is not the problem;
that will come to you as you learn.  With writing this I want to
encourage everybody to go for it if you want to restore you own
instrument, but with the one thing Stephen mentioned in mind: If
you don't want to do it absolutely right, then "pursue some other
historically/mechanically non-destructive pursuit!"

Regards from the Netherlands, and keep the instruments in good
working/playing order!

Niels Berkers