Michael Cornfield asks in 081212 MMDigest if his Steinway upright
Duo-Art is a white elephant, and I must say from what I've seen in
the past several years, sadly, yes.  I'm aware of several uprights
and grands that have literally gone to the dump in the past several
years.  I have four white elephants in my house.  The only one that
might have future value is the drawer model grand.

At least they can be (and are being) gutted to install the new
electronic player systems, and why not?  An Ampico A, and especially
a B, is the perfect case to put one into.  They play much better than
the originals ever did.  One need not have that huge pile of really
expensive rolls and, what's more, you can get modern music.  One can
even still get some money for the pneumatic parts, though that probably
won't last much longer, as more and more drawer-model grands are
gutted.

I've just finished rebuilding a concert grand Steinway Duo-Art, and
doubt I could get back one-quarter of what I put into it.  I chose to
put the pneumatic system back into it partly because I have the rolls
(2,000) and love playing them.  I pity anyone trying to start out --
rolls on eBay are prohibitively expensive and the [recutters'] Duo-Art
perforators have been down for years.  Quality of the sort we got from
the Powell's is a thing of the past.  Recuts available either don't
have Theme perfs or are on paper that's too thick, wanders and warps.

But I'm 63 and I'm not about to change.  I'll be dead soon enough and
my heirs (who prefer rap music) can worry about how to put my white
elephants out to pasture.

Bruce Grimes