Haines Bros. sq. grand./1880 ?

Conrad Hoffsommer hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu
Thu, 19 Dec 2002 20:55:55 -0600


Carl,

At 19:06 12/19/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>to
>an RPT friend locally, and I suggested that this might be a good
>candidate
>for a CA treatment.


As the caretaker for an1876 Haines Bros. Sq., I would second that 
notion.  Many moons ago when I was less old, more foolish, new on the job 
here and thought that ALL the college's pianos should be operable, cured 
the loose pin syndrome by using falconwood plugs and redrilling. Piano is 
now at A440 and _very_ stable in tuning. That retail cost of _that_ 
operation, however, would probably discourage your customer.

BTW, I just pulled a CA miracle on that 1931 Haines fetal grand - it _does_ 
work.

>He thought I should stear clear of it altogether.
>Probably good advice.


Working on these beasties is _not_ for the faint of heart.

>  The dampers were very ineffective. Wondered if  a V type
>damper would work somewhat better ??

I replaced the originals with modern wedge type damper felt with no 
discernable increase in effectiveness. That damper tray system just doesn't 
do it in my instrument. YMMV   The fact that the tray is twist warped 
doesn't help, either.

>Curious as to what the list members think.

I've thought many times that it would make a nice single sized waterbed.





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