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While piano shopping for my students recently (and keeping an eye open for myself for later in the year) I been seeing a lot of rebuilt pianos with the 'wrong' color felt. I've seen a lot of Bechsteins with red, a Bluthner with red, and even a few with two different colored felts. My initial impression is that if a rebuilder is going to cut corners on the felt, what other corners are being cut.

Thoughts?

That's a good point. If they can't even get the felt right, what else did they get wrong?

My thoughts are that if they don't know/don't care about those details there are probably tons of other details they also don't know/ don't care about.

Every great piano rebuilder whose work I've enjoyed absolutely paid attention to detail. Yes, they certainly might decide not to refinish a case, etc. becuase they know it might drive the price up too high. But the work they decide to do is absolutely good down to the details.

Of course there's also the possibility some owner along the line told the technician, "No, I want blue felt. I like the color blue better."

There have been times when different colors of felt have not been readily available. You can find oddities among pianos where nothing has been changed.

For the piano manufacturer or the technician?

I am a rebuilder/technician. It has not always been easy to acquire a perfect color match between all of the string felts and braid. Each batch can have obvious shade differences so you end up with a lot of cloth you can't use together. If all you do is judge a piano rebuild by the felt color I don't want you as a client.

There are many beautiful looking rebuilds that play and sound poorly. Play and listen to the work and if the piano interests you have the structural integrity evaluated by an independent, qualified Tech to assure quality. Most rebuilders think the true value they are providing is the musical utility of the instrument and the longevity of those qualities.

Most of the new pianos have pretty impressive cosmetics now compared to the standards of 20 to 30 years ago. Most though have a molded look to the cases with all that thick polyester. Some have poorly seasoned wood and things like pedal assemblies and legs dry out and come loose. I would say that is pretty bad thing compared to wrong felt color! I could go on.

But if felt color is your thing I am sure you could find someone who would concentrate on that issue for you.

Could it also be that on some rebuilds the customer requested the felt colour? ie. some odd felt colour choices may not have been the choice of the rebuilder.

Well, I never would have guessed it was that hard. But I think the OP was asking about pianos where the technician didn't care about the colors normally associated with a particular piano.

Color match, for example, between reds isn't something I've evaluated before. I guess now I'll do some looking out of curiousity.

I agree with Ed McMorrow. Who gives a ______ about the felt color? High quality felt is high quality felt, and this is independent of what color it is.

Probably a customer wants it to look nice, and that does not necessarily mean original.

My Grotrian was rebuilt with the original color - brown felt. I did not like the color and asked the rebuilder to replace it with nice red.

"If all you do is judge a piano rebuild by the felt color I don't want you as a client."

Well said!

Dammit, my Digital`s got BLACK felt . . I always thought it was red . . . Black Felt! Glad I never noticed that in the shop . . but I have now.

The rebuilders say there are more colors called 'black' than you would believe.

And if you've ever done some interior decorating, you'll know there even more versions of white!

I wonder what colour felt is on my piano. I've never looked. And if it ever was rebuilt (which will be in a long time!!), I'd want it to play and sound great - and colour of felt would be a trivial issue.

Nobody said "pianos are X color felt are better than pianos with Y color felt." That would be like saying that black pianos play better than mahogany!

Three cheers for what Ed said ! Plus, what makes you think the different felt color is "cutting corners"; chances are just as good that it's MORE expensive. What matters, even if it's paisley, is the sound, the sound, the sound.

Yay for Ed! Really? The felt color?

C

Good question. To me, it just seems like taking the easy way out, almost as if the rebuilder doesn't want to take the time to get the original color. They have red felt in the shop, so lets just use that. It makes me wonder what else the rebuilder had laying around the shop that they just used.

Of course I realize that the color doesn't directly effect the quality of the rebuild, or the sound. I was just wondering what everybody's thoughts were.

Some of what you are calling felt is actually felted cloth. Starting with a weave of cloth, it is then run through a felting process, where fibers are deposited on the mesh, resulting in a strong, thick cloth. It is not something that you can just run out and buy anywhere. We are tied to our sources of supply.

With a top level restoration, I feel the felt should be the color of the original issue. It is similar to placing a fallboard logo which is not correct for the period. These sorts of details have varied across a manufacturer's production periods. A 1920 S&S-M is visually very different than a 1970-M. I believe it is important, in a full restoration/rebuild, to match the original visual appeal. It is the same with the brightwork of the pedals, hinges, etc.

However, it is the person with the checkbook who would have the final say.