PIANO REBUILDING & NEWS

UPDATED: December 27, 2000

On my recent trip to the West Coast, I was able to meet a remarkable piano man, the celebrated designer and technician, Darrell Fandrich, in his new but remote location some 45 minutes north of Seattle. In my all too brief meeting with him, many items were discussed, some rumors were laid to rest, and the rest in due course will all come out. Meanwhile, here is the original piece with some changes. Enjoy!

November 23, 1999

Stephen P over in Ireland writes, "To tell you the truth, I'd love to do a piano technician's course and maybe, after some experience, end up saving some of these old pianos. As a private buyer, however, the phrase caveat emptor springs to mind!" Ah yes, and it looks like we may be coming to another juncture in the piano making business right at the turn of the century.

Fandrich in China.

CORRECTION: Darrell Fandrich and his brother Del are both longtime piano technicians. Del was the man responsible for the unique Fandrich upright piano with the unconventional back and a lot of other things, while Darrell is the man responsible for the Fandrich & Sons pianos including the Darrell Fandrich action for upright pianos which really does play like a grand. More later. Meanwhile, Darrell did get to go to China, look over the plant, make a few suggestions and that was about it. He has no other formal connection with Pearl River, Guangzhou, or anyone else in China. He did say that he enjoyed his trip over there.

Saving Old Pianos

As far as getting involved "saving old pianos" is concerned, yes it can be done as a side venture perhaps and why not? But very often some piano technician other than you can spot things that you might miss. Not all old pianos can or should be saved. In fact there are really very few of the many hundreds of brands that should be seriously considered for rebuilding. There are other factors that you and everyone else interested in this business should consider, both as a potential investor as well as an eventual retailer.

1) You are more interested in what the piano will end up being than in its "restored from found" condition, that is a mere restoration back to the way the piano was when it was new is usually not as good a move as a "value added" rebuild that includes things that you can't get on any new piano. Before going out and buying just any old wreck of a piano, get another piano tech or a piano rebuilder to spot a piano for you. They often come across many more likely candidates than you would and you might actually pay less for the actual piano that way as well, and you want to be able to pay as little as possible for a good piano to rebuild on the theory that the less you have to pay for the piano in its found as is condition, the more you can put into it in terms of value added improvements.

2a) Figure that just as wholesale piano prices for new pianos are 50% of the suggested retail price, that you would have to buy the piano, completely rebuilt, including all charges for rebuilding it and be able to turn around and start asking twice as much for the finished instrument. On reflection, you'll probably not be able to make the usual margins, therefore you must consider what an investment is really worth to you, whether you will be happy with a margin of 20% over two years which is only 10% per year for your efforts.

2b) Good rebuilding takes time too. A single job can take several months to accomplish. One reason for this is that since GOOD REBUILDERS ARE IN CONSTANT DEMAND, you must park yourself at the end of their queue. We aren't talking about a hasty proposition. If the queue is long enough, you could be waiting for as long as two years. But this is actually a good sign. Would you really want to entrust such an important undertaking to someone with no ready business?

3a) But since piano retail prices are subject to some negotiations, it wouldn't be unlikely or unwise for you to expect to see a reduction of probably 10% of your original asking price, which means that for every $20K US you ask for you're prepared to take $18KUS. You'll also have to consider your market area, where you'll have the finished piano shown, whether that's to be in your home or somewhere else, and you'll probably have to work something out on things like moving and getting a free tuning from someone in the customer's own area. If you're really serious you may even decide to contribute something really useful to the piano retail business; being honest with people about pianos, what they really are, what some of the better ones are, etc.

3b) You will also be affected by price point pressure from new pianos. Upright or vertical pianos are facing tremendous pressure from makers of new cheaper baby grands, so much so that some fear the demise of the upright piano. Of course if you go the "value added" way, you will have an extraordinary instrument, the likes of which most people can't purchase for twice the asking price. But few will know this. There still is that "name on the fallboard" syndrome to contend with. This is why the choice of brand to rebuild is so important.

If you're serious, you would be developing old pianos into what they were never quite capable of being even when they were new, particularly if you elect to completely replace the actions, which is expensive but on some older pianos may be well worth it. I'm particularly thinking about installing Fandrich actions for uprights in big old American uprights. The results could be staggering.

UPDATE: The problem with this is that there are so many geometries involved, indeed Darrell Fandrich would have to design a new variant of his action for each upright. The solution is of course, that if you want a Fandrich action, you must buy a Fandrich & Sons upright piano. More on these later, but for now back to the piece at hand....

The issue is to find, or have someone who knows more than you, find a piano to rebuild. Rebuilding it will cost you several thousand dollars so you'll want to find a good specimen; a nice medium sized grand would be good, must be bigger than 5'4" from the keyboard to the tail. UPDATE: I've reduced this from my earlier 5'7" because there are far more specimens between 5'4" and 5'7" that with the right rescaling and bass strings could be really nice pianos.

OK, then you specify what parts get replaced and replaced with what. Of special concern are the hammers. UPDATE: You have a few brands to choose from. Rebuilders all have their favorites but the ones most likely to be used are Steinway, Abel, Renner and Ari Isaac. Remember that a voicing is as important as the hammer used.

You'll also probably decide to have it rescaled. There are limitations to what can be achieved, because of the design of the plate, but consider having it done. UPDATE: No, have the piano rescaled, unless it's a Mason & Hamlin. Even Steinways can benefit from some rescaling.

You're also going to need to get the piano to look brand new so there will be extensive refinishing required. Usually this can be worked out in the deal with the rebuilder but try and find out how his refinish jobs hold up before engaging him to do the work. Refinishing is often the most expensive part of a rebuild job.

Now, as far as which pianos to rebuild, Steinway of course is the brand of usual choice because frankly everyone will buy one at the right price. A Steinway is a Steinway and you can always expect to get the best prices for them too. If new Steinway prices continue to remain astronomical, then it will pay to have all the old ones rebuilt. UPDATE: This business has been getting so profitable that Steinway has been getting into it themselves.

In a place like Ireland, I don't know how many old pianos are there. Maybe some of them are English, like Collard & Collard or Challen, both of which had some interesting periods. You're looking for pianos that have all their basic wooden parts in good order even if the action is worn out and the thing's losing strings and can't stay in tune anymore. As long as the rim, plate, soundboard and keyboard are in good shape, you have something that can be rebuilt. UPDATE: I recently discovered a place where some of these antique pianos had been restored, not with too much "value added" technology, but nevertheless with remarkable results. If anyone lives in Washington, Oregon or BC Canada and wants to know more, e-mail me. Of course they really didn't sound like modern pianos but they played pretty well for their ages.

Any rebuild will be replacing the pinblock or it's not a rebuild. This business of redrilling the holes and replacing with thicker pins is not an acceptable solution to me. But it's often only what a technician is willing to do since replacing the pinblock is really the heart of the matter when it comes to rebuilding a piano. There are really only two methods that are used; 1) dowelled into the case and 2) floating pinblocks, both acceptable as long as there is absolutely no gap under the plate.

You could even replace the soundboard too but that's quite an expense and hopefully you'd have gotten the thing for next to nothing. UPDATE: If the wood in the soundboard is still good, you can have the original soundboard rebuilt. Very few rebuilders are competent to do this however. It often makes more sense to replace the soundboard as you can often get a good deal more "value added" in this way. The jury is still out on which particular spruce makes a better sounding soundboard. Darrell Fandrich made a heretical kind of statement, suggesting that the rave for fine grained wood only resulted in producing a harder, less resilient soundboard than one with wider grains. But he was less concerned about soundboards as a factor in producing good piano tone than I expected.

A piano rebuild costing $10K US is going to gross a retail value around $20K US, assuming that you must have a 50% margin. Usually that means Steinway. If it's a Bechstein we may be talking a retail of $25K US or more. 5'10" to 6'3" grands are prime targets for rebuilds. UPDATE: Well certainly, but there are going to be far more people who can afford $15K grands than $25K grands. Therefore, the small parlor grand, if completely rebuilt with value added features will outperform most new production models and therefore deserve a higher price tag, $15K to $20K. Whether you can convince anyone of that will depend on what they experience when they sit down to play your piano.

BRANDS TO LOOK FOR

In America, there are about half a dozen names clustered at the top to choose from. Some rebuilders will only take on Steinways. They are really quick to tell me that there were more amateur piano rebuilders around a few years ago than there are now. They'd prefer that the amateurs stay out of the business and so would I. That would be fine if the rebuilders were engaged in the kind of piano education of the public that people like me are trying to do. Obviously some of them, perhaps most of them these days, are really very busy people, doing what they know how to do best, they're rebuilding pianos. But, since they are likewise interested in good affordable pianos for more people, many more than used to be might consider taking on other work than rebuilding only Steinways. And some of them are doing just that.

Some are getting the message, but frankly the profit margins begin to shrink as you deviate from the half dozen "golden age" names; Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, Chickering (if you can still find any), Knabe, Sohmer, Baldwin. Beyond these there are perhaps half a dozen lesser names or second tier names; Mehlin, Krakauer, Conover, Decker, Blasius, Estey and oh yes Ivers & Pond. These second tier pianos are in some ways the equals of the first tier and can be made into remarkable instruments by virtue of the actions, hammers and rescaling that would be done to them. Their soundboards should in most cases be rebuilt or replaced as well.

Retail prices for these still tend to be much lower than for those in the first tier although as with everything else, continued high prices for the best new pianos will tend to raise the prices of these lesser known rebuilt great pianos.

Of course I really believe that if one is interested in pianos to this extent, one is really going to end up making a business out of it. Is there room for you to be in this business? Obviously the big retailers are going to say no, stay out. But many of them come and go, leaving a lot of pianos out there in their wake, many of which may not be anything like a quality parlor grand or larger grand piano, competently rebuilt, can be.

There will always be people out there who must have a certain name on the fallboard. That's why names like Steinway, Baldwin, Yamaha and others seem to endure.

There are others out there who want a piano to have a certain artistic appeal, the art case crowd, and many of these are being beautifully restored or rebuilt.

But there are, one hopes, a growing number of musical amateurs with the time and means to make an investment in themselves. These are your most likely prospects. To these people we dedicate our own interest in saving old pianos. There will be much more on this subject in the coming months.