DIY Ingenuity

[David Boyce]

I tuned a 1930s Challen (long-gone English make) upright piano today. The 
owner had used a small piece of card stuck to an action rail to compensate 
for a broken bass damper spring by pusing the damper wire forward, and had 
replaced a broken or missing jack spring with a very strong little piece of 
spiral spring, which he couldn't remember where he got.

Neither solution worked well, but both were better than nothing, and showed 
ingenuity!  The proper solution, of course, was to call me!

I'm not sure why, but I always find fitting a new damper spring rather 
satisfying.

Challen made a lot of small grands and there are loads of them around. They 
were very solidly built, but none of them sound or feel great, in my 
experience.  Some of their upright pianos were quite good though.

Best,

David Boyce