Refinish vs retolex

[pcmancini]

Has anyone stripped off the old tolex and refinished the wood on their Rhodes (instead of re-tolexing?)  Wondering what the underlying wood is like (have not stripped mine yet) and if there are any inherent issues with doing this and for anyone who has done it what the process was.

Thanks in advance and any pics would be MOST welcome.

Paul

[pianotuner steveo]

I believe refinishing would be way too much work, and besides, the wood is not the highest quality wood. It was meant to be covered. When you go to buy lumber, there are different grades, meant for painting or for staining.( I.E. Fingerjointed trim VS clear ( no knots) trim)  The Rhodes would be more like paint grade. Plus the wood is very thin, and covered in glue.

[JFRESH313]

yea I agree with steveo.

I too originally wanted to refinish my rhodes, but you will soon realize the wood would look terrible stained/lacquered. Plus it take 10 pounds of elbow grease to get all the old glue off the wood, not to mention the top of my cover was some type of particle wood but the rest was plywood (weird).

I seen a post where someone built a new case from scratch that looked awesome, and if you really wanted to refinish the wood I would go that route. Someone may be able to find a lik to that thread??

[pcmancini]

Thanks, pretty much what I expected - just wanted to confirm before I went down a bad path.

Paul