Regarding the Duo-Art system removed from a Steinway [140522 MMDigest],
I have to vent on this subject as well.  A few years ago I was asked
to service a piano in the choir practice room of a local church.  It
was described as a player and the tech who tuned it had some regulation
problem and couldn't figure out who to solve it with the player in
place.

What I found was a beautiful Steinway Duo-Art mid-size grand; I forget
the exact model.  Both the piano and the Duo-Art appeared to have been
completely rebuilt at some time in the not-so-distant past.  Everything
looked pristine.  In Florida, that's pretty remarkable considering how
quickly even the most well cared for stringing job will start to show
signs of age.

As for the player, everything looked very well done, although I had no
opportunity to see how well it worked.  The only history I could get
was that an elderly member had donated the piano.  But someone had
clearly paid a fair amount of money to have the piano rebuilt.

The music director, however, was not satisfied with the voicing.  Now,
I profess to be no more than a jack-leg tuner in a small town, and I
called a better trained technician.  After some discussion, he made an
appointment to come and voice it.

A few weeks later he called and asked if I wanted any of the "player
parts" before he took them to the dump.  So no, he had no intention of
selling the parts.  If I wanted them I could come get them and save him
the expense of the dump.  Naturally I got them, and checked them out.
The stack had very good repetition, everything seemed to be there.
Eventually I found a home for it all through MMD and I hope the new
owner has found it to be in as good condition as I thought it was.

But I still don't understand the church's decision to remove the
Duo-Art.  I had described the rarity of the piano, the collector value,
the artistic value.  I had suggested that if they weren't happy with
the instrument, it could be sold and the proceeds used to buy something
more to their taste.  But no, that wouldn't be possible because it had
been a gift.

Still, when I left, I had no idea that there was any consideration of
vandalizing the piano.  The tech who did the work assured me that the
choir director was the one who insisted that "the player" should be
removed because surely it would sound better.

I could go on about the fact that the church involved is the owner of
one of the few historic buildings left in this town, and the rector
lives in one of the historic homes.  One would think they would have
had some sense of the value.  It can't take that much trouble to wonder
how common a "Steinway player" would be, not that much trouble to do
an Internet search.  Surely a little due diligence would have been in
order.

Oh, well, thanks for the chance to vent a bit.  And yes, there are
still some fine pianos being gutted.

John Daly