(was Re: Cracked Pin Block?)

[Stephen Airy]

I was wondering if I should consider restoring my 1913
56" upright sometime in the not-so-near future.  I
don't have the money right now to do a full
restoration, but I plan to restring in the near
future, and there's a small chance I may get new
hammers.  The plate needs to be relacquered, but it
has no cracks.  The soundboard also seems to be sound
(with no cracks), and when I stretch a string across
the back (not a piano string) there's space between
the middle of the string and the board (about 1/8")
which tells me there is some crown.  My area of
concern (based on what you said) is the bass bridge. 
It has a hairline crack along several of the speaking
side bridge pins (from approximately F1 to C2 or
something like that (straddling the monochord/bichord
crossover point, which is at F#1/G1).  This piano has
a 27-note bass with all plain-wire trichords on the
long bridge starting at C3.  The tuning pins are
somewhat loose, so it won't hold a tuning for very
long.  I find myself tuning it once or twice a month. 
As of yet, though, I have found no reason to believe
the pinblock is cracked.

--- Dave Nereson <dnereson@dimensional.com> wrote:
>
>     Not if it's it pretty poor shape.  I always
> figure:  if you've got a
> good plate, good soundboard & bridges (decent crown,
> tone, and sustain; no
> major cracks), and a good pinblock, the rest is
> worth restoring, even if it
> needs refinishing, new hammers & dampers, key
> rebushing, etc.  But without
> those three major structural components, especially
> on an upright, it's
> usually not worth it unless you're going for a total
>          --David Nereson, RPT, Denver
> 
> 


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