Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Question for the Rebuilders.....

The owner of a M&H that I'm looking at claims this partial rebuild was done for about $8000:

" Piano has had the Soundboard refinished, refinished plate, replaced felt and buffing hardware. Replace strings, replace pinstock, replace tuning pins, replace dampers, replace hammers replaced keytops, check action. Replace caster wheels. Finished November 2005. RESTORED BY RENNER PIANO Service in Houston Texas."

I believe "pinstock" was meant to be "pinblock".

The piano looks and plays like a new one, except for the
cracked, original soundboard.

Does $8000 seem like a correct figure for this amount of work?

Thanks in advance.....

Seems about right.

Ok, thanks.

The owner is asking $4,500. So for certain he's
going to take a loss on this one. He already
rejected my offer of $4,000 so he's just trying
to get what he can.

The cracked soundboard doesn't seem to affect the tone,
which was great when I tried the piano, but I will try
it once more to make sure I wasn't imagining things....

You're asking the wrong people. Contact a qualified tech in the area and have them evaluate the piano.

I'd take that job for $8k

+1

That would be the case if he were asking about doing the job, but he is not. He is inquiring about a job done years ago.

Unless it's a top-tier grand, anyone will lose money selling a piano they had rebuilt. IMO, that shouldn't matter, because a piano is not a financial instrument. I really wish we would stop looking at them that way.

Monetary return on investment and musical appreciation are not relevant to each other.

The job was done back in 2005.

I just wanted to know if the figure he gave me for the work was
realistic. I've looked at the piano, and it looks like
everything he stated was indeed done.

But I will likely have a tech look at the piano anyways.

If about $8,000 was really what he paid for the partial re-build, then it's truly a buyer's market at the moment, and he's going to lose quite a bit on this deal.

I should buy this piano really.....

Thanks.

Yeah. That sounds about right.

You're right, Jim. I shouldn't always think
about things in terms of money, but that's very
easy to do.

If a piano speaks to me personally, and I can
reasonably afford it, I should buy it.

But I do want to test the seller's honesty,
because $4,500 plus about $200 to move the piano
is quite a chunk of change for most people.

Not to be taken lightly in my situation.

Yes, for what was done, that's correct.

Thanks. My mini-rant was more broadly directed than the question at hand. It seems like almost every time I see the subject of a rebuild come up, it focuses on the question of return on investment in terms of dollars spent, and I feel that's an obtuse point of reference.

But, I understand you wanting a little backup on whether what you're hearing is accurate. That's a sensible question to ask, IMO.

If you get the piano for $4000 or $4500, you are the high bidder, and should not assume you can resell for more. In a buyers' market, your purchase establishes the going price. A high quality, fully rebuilt M & H A would sell in the $20,000s, and it should play "like new." That is not what you are buying, and if you like the piano, $4000 is a low price for a piano you will enjoy.

Paul - What Ed is saying about the going price is the key to whether you're doing okay with a deal or not. Going by what I've seen, this sounds like a fair deal. A summer ago we sold a Conover grand with a similar amount of work done for $4500 here in rural Iowa. Judging by the fact that I made one phone call to a prospective buyer, offered him the price and had a check for the amount in my hand a half hour later, I'm thinking I could have gone higher. A Mason and Hamlin is (in my experience) a better made piano than a Conover, so I would say if the restoration work was well done (hire a reputable technician to ascertain that), and you really like the piano, you're golden.

Here's the Conover we sold for the price you're talking about:

[img:center][/img]

$4500 for that is a steal! Related to another topic, who would recomend a new, low end asian piano over something like that?!?!

Yep some see the used Roll Royce or Jaguar as the better drive.

Wow, that Conover even looks like the M&H!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drslick/sets/72157638568484836/

Same beautiful finish.

Again, this M&H played and felt like a new piano, and even looked new except for the cracked soundboard.

In regards to Rolls Royces and Jags, would the M&H be
considered the Jaguar?

Haha!

Wow. Too bad about those cracks.

Have you gotten under it and knocked on the ribs in the vicinity of the cracks? That's one way of checking for buzzes and rattles from them; it's checking to see if the ribs have come unglued.

Yeah, it's a bit too late to replace the soundboard now,
right? It really should have been done during the rebuild (as per the other thread about newer soundboards being better). My guess is that the cracks in the soundboard are quite possibly the main reason the seller has not been able to sell this piano.

However, the tone was still fantastic, so it doesn't seem like this will matter to me. Other people are more concerned about cosmetics, but I'm more about tone and feel.

I didn't notice any buzzes or rattles, but when I look at the piano again, I will definitely check the ribs.

Thanks for the tip....