Bob,  The piano can be brought up to pitch in stages, I've done this
with many pianos around here that haven't been tuned in years and years
(one Kimball had it's last recorded tuning in 1935).

It will take quite a while to do the job, and it will have to be
tuned again shortly after he finally gets it up to pitch, due to the
soundboard and bridges settling. You may even have a few strings break
if they've become brittle over the years, so you should be aware of
that.

If it is just tuned to itself, and it is several steps low, the bass
will never sound good -- the 1925 Gulbransen Community Model never had
a great resounding bass to start with, so the lesser string tension
makes it even worse.

Dan Armstrong - Armstrong Piano Tuning & Repair
Pine River, MN 56474