I am now of the opinion that this farming out of rebuilding is a way for SS to extricate themselves from the potential legal quagmire they created by banning the sale of decals, etc. I have thought this through now and this is what I'm thinking.
Peter Grey Piano Doctor
Who knows? In the UK they always tried to discourage customers from doing a full rebuild. Hamburg never liked it because it took up space on the production line when they preferred to make new pianos. Hamburg and London (separate financial concerns within the same company at that time, pre-Poulsen) made more money from the sale of new pianos than from rebuilding existing pianos, and they'd really only want to rebuild pianos with ornamental cases for stock because they could be sold as art case pianos in rare woods, often selling for exorbitant amounts of money, in some cases 50% over the price of a new black model.
Anyway the whole quagmire regarding selling or restricting the sale of their decals, I've no idea what's going on with that or how it's playing out. I know that it hasn't stopped some rebuilders reproducing them, and SAP renovation in Poland can still seem to get either an authentic or reproduction decal. Maybe they make it themselves, or get it from China. I have no idea where its coming from but they're coming from somewhere and there isn't much can be done by Steinway about it.
