I am a piano dealer that buys and sells used pianos for a living.
Simply put, I have to put money into finding, moving and storing
a piano until I can sell it at a profit.  Sometimes I do well and
sometimes not.

This weekend one of the brokers that finds pianos for me and many
others came across a Steinway D grand at what I believe to be a bargain
price.  Gutted players and even those with parts are usually passed on
by piano dealers as there is no market for them to the usual piano
dealer.   The broker sent out an email at eight-fifteen Sunday morning
to almost two hundred dealers with an offer to sell a Steinway D that
could easily be fitted with standard legs and made into a nice rental
piano.

His pictures showed the big piano as a normal Steinway grand with
double legs and the music rack pulled forward to cover the area where
a spool box is on a Duo-Art player.  He admitted it was an ex-player
with a rebuilt Steinway action, having been restrung in the past.

My heart and mind went crazy with different thoughts as to what to do
with such an offer before me.  I waited an hour and the hit the email
with a "I will take it" response!  He had bids from several other
buyers during the hour I was thinking about it so now I had to outbid
them to buy the piano.  Since I have done business before with this
seller I was able to make a deal.

A few hours later I was now the owner of a 9-foot-plus gutted Steinway
grand and totally lost as to what I was going to do with such a piano.
One of the other buyers was going to cut it down and make it a straight
piano.

Now the million dollar question: who has spare Duo-Art parts that
will possibly fit this piano?  I know the stack must be custom-built.
The player system originally had two pumps -- one was a fifteen-inch
pump and the other was a seventeen-inch pump.  Other information would
be appreciated or, if you want to buy a really large, heavy piano,
then contact me.

Don Teach - Shreveport Music Co.
Shreveport, Louisiana
dteach@nwla.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]