[ Ref. Ben Gottfried in 140521 MMDigest --

Hi all,  I just have to say that it really "toasts" me to see actions
being removed from pianos.  Ben, did that technician even try to talk
the customer out of removing the action or did he get money for taking
it out, then selling the action (maybe) and then selling a CD player
to the customer?

I've been rebuilding for almost 50 years, often wondering where I was
going to get the rent, doing the best I could on each piano, just to
make them play again.  I was never in it just for the money, and often
times I didn't charge enough.

If they ask me about doing it, I would tell them they need a different
technician.  Who's going to service these electronic players?  Where
will you get parts in ten years?  The Steinway is 80 years old and
the player could be rebuilt again and again.  Has anyone run into
Pianocorders (the tape players) that are still playing?  Do they take
the engine out of a Model T Ford and stick in a modern engine?  I think
you do the customer a disservice to gut a player just because they want
it done.

I've seen ads on eBay and Craigslist that make me sick.  One guy
listed a 6-foot-6 Welte Mignon grand in a Louis the 14th style case,
all refinished and rebuilt as far as the piano goes, but the Welte was
gutted out of it.  The ad said it was a "Beautiful piece of American
History."  He shipped the player action to another technician but it
got destroyed on the way by the shipper.  I told him it was a "beautiful
piece of American History before he got his hands on it."

There was a time when people destroyed their Victrolas because of the
modern phonographs with a better sound coming out.  These Victrolas are
collectors items because they survived the rampant destruction of their
kind.  Now we are seeing somewhat the same thing and people are aiding
and abetting the destruction.

I have to say that it is pretty hard to sell a reproducing piano.
People don't know what they are.  People have forgotten ragtime and
songs that actually have a melody you can whistle.  Most people don't
have room for them and the only commercial roll manufacturer has almost
priced themselves out of the market.

But does gutting the player parts out of a piano make it any more
saleable?  Why?  They don't interfere with the manual playing of the
piano.  Would you gut a music box to put a phonograph inside?

Just to show you what knowledge youth has of these things, a friend of
mine was bothered by his manual piano being too loud and was stuffing
the grand with towels and carpet or whatever to try to soften it.  His
nephew in his 'twenties said, "Why don't you just turn it down."

I'm bothered by the fact that some people put ads on eBay for a player
and when it doesn't sell, they dismantle it and try to sell it for
"parts".  Do other people see this and decide that's what they will
do with theirs?  I think typically they see the ad and decide to do
that themselves without checking the "Completed Items" tab to see if
it actually sold.

Well, this is getting too long.

Tony Marsico