Rodgers' Piano Restorations
The Best Piano Rebuilding in the Business
9091 Ox Bow Rd.   North East, PA 16428
Because  I have a great deal of work to do, I am forced to concentrate my efforts on all matters which concern the tasks before me.   Sadly, the telephone has become a constant source of interruptions to the work schedule which consist largely of people seeking free information and telemarketers.   I lose between one and two hours each day to these people when I answer the phone.   Because of this, I have been forced to shut off phone communication so that I can better serve my customers.  In addition, the email spammers have become so thick that I am getting thousands of spams per day.  They are so thick that even spam busting software cannot stop them.  The spam has flooded my email so badly that I can no longer gain access to my own email.  Even after trying a change to the email address, the spammers found us again in a very short time.  Each time I try to access my email I simply get "timed out" because of all the junk that is in the folder.   Although I would love to be able to communicate via email, I have been totally blocked from that venue by these parasites.  If you wish to communicate with me, the best method at this time is to send a letter to the address listed above.  I know this seems slow compared to other rebuilders, but it will be well worth the effort since the quality available here is of the highest order.

Rebuilding of an 1890 Emerson Upright.

Due to disc space restrictions the large copies of photos for this project are no longer present on the web.  All thumbnail photos are still present, but if you want to see the full sized pictures, please email me with your request.  A CD which contains all the pictures in full is available for a small fee. Return to the Current Projects Hub to view many other projects; including larger pictures.
Below are before and after pictures of this piano.

This piano was chosen by the customer because of it's beautiful cabinet design and the lovely Walnut veneer.  The customer was looking for a player piano but couldn't find one that was Victorian enough in design to suit their taste.   Below you will see how the rebuilding process went on this unit.

First a few particulars about the Emerson Co.:  The Emerson company of Boston, Mass. was established in 1849 and produced pianos until 1940.   This particular unit was never a player originally but Emerson did, in fact, produce player pianos.  They made use of some of the best player mechanisms ever made.  You can find Emerson pianos containing Standard, Amphion, Autopiano and Angelus mechanisms.

When this piano came into the shop, it was truly a disaster.   The sound board was badly cracked and coming unglued in a number of areas, the pin block was no longer capable of holding the tuning pins tight enough to keep the piano in tune, the ivory was falling off and badly chipped, the list goes on and on.  In addition, this unit, like many others of this vintage, had an antiquated style of action which required a good deal of ingenuity to restore.  The restoration was a true success.  The piano has been back in service now for many problem free years.

There are many ways that restorations of a piano can be approached.  It is important to find a piano technician who can weigh the needs of your piano for restoration with your budget and with the musical requirements that the piano will be meeting.   When looking for a piano technician to restore your piano, it is very important not to just hire the man or woman who will do it for the least amount of money.  It is equally important for a technician to understand what a customer can afford when restoring their piano.  For instance, a new soundboard was potentially indicated in the restoration example below.  However, the customer's budget would not allow for a new sound board in this instance.  Therefore, it was decided to do a very careful job of shimming the cracks and restoring some crown to the original sound board.  Perhaps the final result was not quite as powerful sounding as it could have been but at the same time the customer saved $3500 on the cost of the work and still received back a unit that will perform beautifully for years to come.  (note:   it isn't alway possible to restore the original sound board.  Happily, in this instance, the board was reusable but that may vary depending on the condition of your piano.)