rebuilding decisions

[D.L. Bullock]

Considering you probably do not wish to spend many thousands and a couple of
years to learn it on this piano, It sounds like the action work would return
the most rewards to you personally and make the piano worth more to
prospective customers.  You have to decide how far you want to go.  Without
doing a 100% job, I would first replace as much of the action as you can
afford.

I can do a totally new action in less than a week and that is with all the
other stuff we have going on here.  Use Renner so you don't have to spend
days straightening up the flanges and shimming pieces.  Use Ronsen or Renner
hammers.  They vary in price but they are both dependable.  If you can get
the bass bridge out without removing the plate, then do so and send it to
someone like John Trefz or others on this list who will replace it or
replace the top half of it for about $100.00.  Glue and screw it back
together and re install the bass strings.  You can replace the bass strings
if you like for about $200.  Replace tuning pins if you do.

In the rare occasion that this baby grand has long bolts that go through the
plate and the pin block at both ends of the pin block, it may be one of
those few pianos that you can remove the plate without destringing it.  If
the pin block is bolted down with flathead woodscrews UNDER the plate then
you are out of luck.  If the plate is removable, then you can also do a
total recrown or shimming of the soundboard.  If you do this contact me for
further details on doing it.

With the plate out and strings only attached at the tuning pins, you can
clean the plate without so much bother.

Good luck.

Oh, yeah for great grand regulation get the book by Danny Boone at any piano
supply

D.L. Bullock
www.thepianoworld.com


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-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Davidson [mailto:mark.davidson@mindspring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 6:09 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: rebuilding decisions


Thanks for the comments, Robin.  The piano is 4'10", quite small, but
interestingly doesn't seem small, if that makes any sense.  SN 51124.
One of the action rails has a 1923 date stamped on the end.
Many baby grands look "truncated" to me whereas this one looks
more to  be proportionately scaled down.  I will post scale
measurements when I have them, but I thought it was interesting to
have wound trichords at the high end of the bass bridge - something
I haven't seen before.

The soundboard seems to be quite solid and the sound is still
strong with lots of sustain (ignoring the dead bass strings and flattened
hammers).  I won't be making any rash decisions in that department.
Right now it's in my garage with a dehumidifier at about 45%
and I'll let it sit a few weeks to make sure nothing develops.
I thought about putting a small (25W) light bulb under the piano
to help dry it, but I don't want to *encourage* cracks, so I think
not.

I tried reshaping one of the flattened hammers and a much fuller
tone resulted, bright but without the harshness of the flat strike
points.

I tend to agree with you about the bridges.  The treble bridge
has only a few hairline cracks, while the bass bridge is really
splitting in places.  The workmanship is amazing on these -
I don't think my photos do them justice.  Note the maker's
mark on the treble bridge photo.

> The pictures suggests that the pins are loose in the birdseye, even if the
> bushings themselves are OK.

Not sure what you're seeing here, but I will check these more
closely.

Silk cords - yes once they start to go...  These are installed with little
pegs holding them in place.  Probably glued also.

Another "feature" -  a small bellows at the left end of the fallboard,
presumably some sort of "slow fall" damping mechanism (fallboard is
two-piece with hinge in middle of keys).