Encouragement for Novice Rebuilder
By Spencer Chase
Damon Atchison sounds a little discouraged by the advise offered by myself and others regarding first time player repair. I would like to offer some encouragement and hope that others will also.
The player mechanisms are pretty straight-forward and can be rebuilt (not necessarily perfectly the first time) by most mechanically inclined individuals who spend the time to do a little research, ask questions of knowledgeable people (such as our group), and use quality materials.
Much piano work is well beyond the enthusiastic amateur, but this should not discourage the beginner. So far I have not met anyone who was born with this knowledge. I would suggest choosing a first piano that is suitable in terms of the work it needs and its rarity and value. It would not be wise to start on a one-of-a-kind instrument, nor would it be anything but frustrating to start with a disaster. There are plenty of player pianos available for next-to-nothing which are good enough to learn on.
I recommend seeking the advice of a piano technician in choosing a piano. Make it clear what you want and what advice you are seeking. Most piano technicians do not know players, but that is the easy part to check. As long as all the parts are there and not badly corroded, eaten away or otherwise destroyed, the thing should be restorable. If possible avoid any uncommon or peculiar make, and avoid anything that has been "restored" before unless it was done by a professional or competent amateur.
Damon, the piano you have might not be as bad as you think. Ask a piano tech to look at it. You need to have it tuned anyway so have a tuner/tech look at it. It will be a lot cheaper than throwing a lot of time and materials (quality materials are expensive) into a worthless piano.
Spencer Chase
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(Message sent Fri 13 Dec 1996, 06:35:04 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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