Well, this was a piano of the past. I wanted to ward off the hoards of people clamoring to buy a supped-up Young Chang. 😄

Thanks, Matthew!

Thank you, David. My very first grand piano.

That’s a great question. One could definitely sink money and effort into a piano never to be truly satisfied. I would say to look for the tell-tale signs of a quality rim and board-strong and sustained tone, tuning stability; consider the maker’s general reputation; and try to hear past components that are mediocre or old (as vague a directive as that may seem). With this YC I like to think I maxed out the intersection of cost of improvements/impact thereof/and instrument potential. I didn’t restring the entire piano but just the bass section where the difference in quality would matter most. And those crusty stock hammers were not hard to improve upon. I replaced the shanks in conjunction w the hammers but not the wippens. The rest of the improvements were largely of the sweat equity variety. In the end, I don’t feel I could rate the result as a “great sound”, to use your words. The instrument can only reach so high. BUT it was a heck of a lot better than it was initially and actually quite appealing. I think the buyer felt they were getting a nicely-worked instrument that fit into their budget and had some class to the sound. And while I had it, I sure enjoyed the enhancements that didn’t come at too high a cost.