Virtual Tour Step 2

The Piano Inspection

The next step was to completely remove all the player mechanism and do a thorough examination of the piano. As the player was removed detailed sketches were made of the tubing and other player related linkages before disassembly. It may have been months before everything was reinstalled and the notes would be needed as a guide to be sure everything goes back in its rightful place. During the next project instead of sketching a video camera will be used to document the information. There have been a few times pictures would have been nice to be sure that mistakes had not been made in sketching. With a video one will be able to see for sure how things were.

After the player was removed the action, key bed, sound board, tuning pins, strings, bridges, trap work and all other piano related items were inspected.

This piano had a number of problems:

1. The sound board had several crack and a number of ribs were loose around these cracks.

2. The bass bridge was cracked and would need to be replaced.

3. The tuning pins were all loose and would need attention before the piano would hold a tune.

4. The bottom board had come apart at the glue joints and would have to be repaired.

5. The hammers were literally falling apart.

6. The dampers were hard and buzzed when in use.

7. Many of the ivory key tops were missing and the keys would need new tops.

8. Most all the bushings in the keys and the action had been eaten by insects.

As you can tell this piano needed a lot of work before any time could be spent on the player. The player unit was stored out of the way and the work began on the piano. It has been said many times that a restored player unit is only as good as the piano itself.

Send E-Mail

Back to Step 1

On to Step 3

Home Page

"Tie Me To Your Apron Strings"

All sound content on this site is powered by Real Audio.If you do not have a Real Audio player installed
you can download it for free by clicking here.

This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page