Restoring Collard & Collard Grand

[Peter Joris]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Stephane,

=20

The sound is rather good, at least as good as it can be because the =
hammers
are severely worn, this makes the treble to hard and the bass to soft.

The sound is not comparable with modern grands tho, still firm, not to =
sharp
with a spark of briliance in it, not glassy as I read in the modern =
sound
treath.

The end result will very much be depending on the hammers

I was thinking of refelting the hammer, now I only have to choose the
felt!!!

=20

I would be nice to know what the correct age of the piano is, this could
help me in choosing the strings, I cleaned the bass strings already, i
tested 2 bass strings and they sound a bit better after the cleaning but
this will show in the end

The plain strings are so rusty that I don=92t know how to clean them. Do =
you
have a suggestion?

=20

Kind regards,

Peter Joris

=20

  _____ =20

From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On =
Behalf
Of St=E9phane Collin
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 12:40
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Restoring Collard & Collard Grand

=20

Hello Peter !

=20

How is the sound ?  I recall having heard 3 Collard & Collard upright
pianos, and they all had the same funny sound like if there was way not
enough tension in the strings.  It made me think that those were =
designed to
be tuned far higher than 440.  Just curious if the grand has the same =
issue.

=20

Period hard drawn iron strings reproductions are available from =
different
sources : Malcom Rose (www.malcom-rose.com) (you would probably choose =
type
C) ; Stephen Paulello (he's got a nice chart for deducing (following his
assumptions) the right string quality after the string length, the gage =
and
the diapason) ; Pure sound (www.puresound-wire.com) (but this wire will
probably be too stiff for the Collard & Collard).

But those strings are a modern mild steel compromise, not the real iron
stuff.  Stephen Birkett had a project for reproducing the period iron
equivalent.  I don't know if he already finalized this.  Some nice info =
here
: http://real.uwaterloo.ca/~sbirkett/historical%20wire.htm

=20

Beware, when rescaling such an instrument with modern wire you have a =
great
risk to over tension the piano, leading to pinblock failures and/or case
failures.  And if you rescale with particular tension in mind, you could =
end
up with not enough tensionned strings that will sound funny.  Many =
restorers
here will first try to save the original strings and clean them.

=20

Best regards.

=20

St=E9phane Collin.

----- Original Message -----=20

From: Peter Joris <mailto:pjoris@pandora.be> =20

To: 'Pianotech' <mailto:pianotech@ptg.org> =20

Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 10:34 AM

Subject: Restoring Collard & Collard Grand

=20

Hi List,

=20

Currently I am restoring a Collard & Collard Grand Serial: 16016 this =
should
date between 1830 and 1840 I think.

There is a number on the plate =93K2=94 is this the type number?  It is =
about
183cm (6ft) long.

=20

Is there anybody out there who has done this before?

Im looking for information about what kind of strings to use for the
restinging, what felt to use for refelting the hammers etc.

Actually I can use any tip available, this the first time I am doing =
this,
this will be a great for learning.

=20

Sound board is fine, the veneer of the case is rather bad (a lot of =
work),
the pinblock feels still good on 1 or 2 loose pins.

It was tuned to A440 and it holds very well.

=20

I am thinking of a rescale, so it can be tuned at A440 afterwards with a
lower tension, doess anybody has experience with this?

=20

Also I would like to take out the plate for refinishing but it goes all =
the
way into the case wood, I did not take any veneer of to see how it is
constructed, maybe any of you know this?

=20

Any help will be very much appreciated,

=20

Kind regards

Peter Joris

Pianotuner (maybe becoming rebuilder)

=20

=20

=20

=20

=20


---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/e8/c3/b1/c8/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--