Should I Repair It, or Restore It?
Of course, if I had my choice, I’d much rather restore an antique pump organ than repair one.
Because when you're trying to repair one problem on a 100-plus-year-old antique musical instrument with
thousands of old, dried out, worn out parts, it’s very easy to create a dozen new problems.
So then the real question is "what will it cost to have my pump organ restored?" As you can probably imagine, it
depends largely on the organ's overall condition. As an example, does the organ have serious termite damage, or dry
rot? Is it basically a pile of parts stacked in the corner of someone's basement or attic?
Has it been playing host to a family of mice, rats, or snakes (not all that uncommon)? Does it have any serious
water damage? Has it been kept in a barn for the past 40 years and is warped to pieces? Does it have missing parts
(also not uncommon) and if so, how many are missing? And lastly, is the pump organ really worth restoring.
Well, in all but the most extreme cases the majority of antique pump organs can be restored.
All of these questions are important in determining the cost of putting a pump organ back in the condition it
was in when it first left the factory, however many years ago.
Another important question is what about guarantees on the work performed. Most people that offer pump organs
services (and they’re not that many) generally guarantee their work for about six months, to maybe a year.
However, all my customers know that my restoration work comes with a 100% guarantee for as long as they own
their organ.
That's my guarantee, and I think it’s a pretty good one!
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