Possible Old Piano Restoration Project ...?

Question:I recently bought a house and out in the garage is a old upright piano. I would guess from 1910-1930. Its actually in really good shape - no major scratches or anything. It has a upraised design (kinda looks like vines and pine cones?) across the front face area. Regretfully it was painted over a ugly green color.

Anyways - It still plays fairly well, and my friend said it mostly still in tune. It has been sitting in a unheated garage in Michigan for probably 20-30 years ... would this be a decent project to restore? Could of the temp changes warped anything to make it junk?

The house is huge and it looks pretty cool - so I have room to fix it up and put it in the house... what do you think?

Answers:
You can probably undertake the wood refinishing yourself and get fairly decent results. If the wood is damaged so that it is no longer "stain grade", you could paint it black or white, or possibly another solid color. I would use several coats of a quality lacquer, applied with a paint sprayer.

The bigger problem will be with the mechanism. You will probably need to replace all the felts on the hammers and the dampers. There may be other parts of the mechanism that will need repair. This is not a job for an amateur. Before you undertake this project, I strongly recommend that you have a piano tuner examine your instrument so that you'll get an idea what needs to be done and what it will cost.

May I recommend that you use Yamaha felts when you rebuild the piano. They provide a brilliance and clarity that in many cases is better than the original. My brother-in-law, who is a college music professor, told me that he has even seen Yamaha felts used on Steinway concert grand pianos.