What does it cost to remanufacture a quality grand piano?
First, it costs the same to remanufacture a quality piano as it does to remanufacture a lesser-designed piano. Piano remanufacturing is a labor-intensive endeavor. We spend in excess of 500 hours per piano on the typical remanufacturing job, not including refinishing. New Steinway grand pianos cost over forty thousand dollars for a small grand piano and cost over one hundred thousand dollars for a concert grand. You can expect to pay approximately three-quarters of the cost of a new Steinway to have a grand piano remanufactured. Each piano must be individually evaluated to determine a cost of remanufacturing. Age, wear and performance criteria are the main factors that determine the needs of an individual piano.

Why do prices vary so widely for “rebuilding” of grand pianos?
A piano has over forty thousand parts and its performance capabilities are dependent on all of them working together properly. A piano is truly a sum of its parts. To keep prices down, some “rebuilders” simply do not replace or even recondition key components. They also use cheap unskilled labor to perform the work. The results are pianos that function but do not perform at a high level of touch and tone. A quality-remanufactured piano should have a uniform, responsive touch with a wide dynamic range of tonality. Most “rebuilt” pianos today do not exhibit any of these qualities.

How long does it take to remanufacture a grand piano?
Once a piano enters our shop, it typically takes six months to complete. We do not guarantee completion schedules. We continue to work on pianos until we are completely satisfied with the results that we achieve. We pride ourselves on delivering high end, custom high performance pianos. Each piano is an entity unto itself. Each one requires differing amounts of effort to achieve the results that our customers and we desire. We do not operate an assembly line or rush jobs out our doors to meet schedule demands.

How long must the typical customer wait until you begin work on a piano?
That varies over time, but on average, most of our customers wait up to a year for us to work on their pianos. Customers are willing to wait on us because of the reputation that we have built over the last fifty years. We provide our customers with the best quality of workmanship available on the market today.

Are quality-remanufactured pianos from a hundred years ago as good as a newly manufactured piano today?
Yes, many would say that they are better, as do we. The design of the piano has not changed in any significant way in the last 120 years, except for exterior case design. The exteriors of pianos have become less ornate since the early 1900’s. Many would argue that the changes that manufactures have made to their pianos have been to their detriment.

Do you significantly change the design of a piano during the remanufacturing process?
No! We adhere to the underlying design of a piano, making only those changes that have become accepted practices in our trade. We believe that if you start with a piano with a good design, you do not need to make wholesale changes to the piano design. This is why over ninety-five percent of our remanufactured pianos are Steinway pianos.