1870 Steinway vertical

[Les Smith]

WARNING! tHIS IS A LONG, RAMBLING, QUASI-TECHNICAL POST ON ANCIENT
STEINWAY VERTICALS. IF YOU ALREADY KNOW THE STORY, OR EVEN IF YOU 
DON'T, YOU'LL PROBABLY BE BORED. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! HERE GOES.--LES 
On Wed, 8 Oct 1997 NBWW@aol.com wrote:

> Hi all. 
> This is a new experience for me. The thrill of a new adventure! My palms a
> sweating! I  am a new comer to the computer and the internet. Heard about
> this from other techs.
> I'm restoring an 1870 Steinway vertical and need 6 original butts and 6
> original wippens. I'm  just doing the action and trapwork at this time.  
> Restringing to follow as the budget allows.

Since no one else jumped on this, I say a few (okay, more than a few!)
words about this. First, however, if you've never worked on one of these
before, it might be a good idea to slip into you BROWN corduroys, first.
You'll see why in a minute.

Historical perspective. Your piano was built in 1870. It wouldn't be until
six years LATER that a brash young army general and his men would be im-
mortalized in a losing stand against the Souix Indians on a battlefield
at the Little Bighorn River in Montana. The same year that Custer and his
men perished, the US was celebrating its Centennial in Philadelphia. Part
of that included a huge piano exhibition in which the newly redesigned in-
struments--including a stunning new concert grand-- of Ernest Knabe from
Baltimore would make the piano world sit up and take notice. Unfortunate-
ly Knabe's moment in the sun would last just twenty years. When Ernest
died in 1894, Knabe's future died, too. From there it was all down hill.
Never again would they be a "contender". Yet I imagine that when Ernest
died, even Steinway breathed a sigh of relief. His pianos were THAT good. 
Finally, at that same exhibition, a young inventor named Bell showed off
an invention for the first time that would  literally change the world,
the telephone. The piano you're talking about repairing/restoring  was  
made BEFORE these long-distant events took place. It has outlived not only
its makers and original owners, but Custer and Bell and Knabe and the
many generations who came after them, too. Quite, frankly, that impresses
me. A lot. It should impress you, too.

Whenever I open up one of these relics from days long passed, and look
inside I feel something like  the  hushed  reverence I feel  when I
walk into a church. I feel in the presence of something very special,
very rare, and utterly without peer today. Pull off the bottom board.
Down near the bottom of the plate, you'll find the date it was cast by
Steinway. It'll read something like 25/3/80, using the old day/month/
year format. When you look inside the piano from the top you'll see
something unique: hammers, butts, damper-levers, wippens, keys, dowel-
capstans, tubular-metal action rails, "signature" Steinway flanges,
strings, felts, case parts, etc., etc., all not merely ASSEMBLED by
Steinway, but BUILT by them too. Parts which could be found in no other
piano made, only Steinway. Wow! And here it is, 127 years later, still
functional enough that we're talking about repairing/restoring it to
see if maybe we can maybe coax another century or so out of it. In-
credible.

In 1870, when that piano was built, Steinway had been manufacturing
pianos here in the states for less than 20 years. The pre-eminent piano
in America was still Chickering, but Steinway already had them clearly
in their sights. In the Chickering factories, the worker's mantra was
"We're number one, we're number one! In Steinway's factories the mantra
was "Kill Chickering, Kill Chickering"! To this end Steinway spared no
expense, never compromised quality in favor of corporate expediency.In
the days long before the bean-counters, the clock-watchers, and the ef-
ficiency experts made their appearance, Steinway set out to build the
finest piano in the world, no matter what the expense. They succeeded.
You're looking at one. And the reason why, a few short years later, it
was the workers in Steinways factories who were jubilantly chanting
"We're number one, We're number one". Meanwhile, back at Chickering,
everyone had been reduced to puzzling "Hey, what happened? Hey, what
happened?" Steinway was what had happened. Chickering would never re-
cover, neither would anyone else. Since the day Steinway overtook
Chickering, there have only been two piano manufacturers in the US:
Steinway and everyone else. And that's why that ancient 1870 Steinway
upright you'e looking at deserves both your respect and the very best
work you're capable of doing. Nothing less!

Now, here's where those brown corduroy's come in. You said "right now   
I'm just doing the action-work." JUST. Kind of reminds me of when the
captain of the Titanic said to his first officer, "Wow, look at the
size of that iceberg over there! Swing her closer so I can get a bet-
ter look! :) Here's why.

First of all, I assume that this piano has a seven octave span, a 3/4
plate and an open-faced pinblock, right? That really wasn't that hard
because back then they all did. However, can you identify the model of
this Steinway? Is it an "E", or an "F", or perhaps a N, O, L, R,T, X, 
H, or S ? Relax, I'm pulling your chain, it'll be either an E or an
F. The difference? Four inches. The E is 48" tall, the F is 52" tall.
Knowing the model is important. You'll see why.

Despite the fact that Steinway upright actions of this vintage are 
among the best engineered and executed ever made, after more than a
century it is probable that serious action problems exist with this
piano. These problems fall into two major catagories and are com-
pounded by the fact that replacement action parts haven't been avail-
able from Steinway itself FOR DECADES. Oh-oh! The next time you'er work-
ing on a relatively modern Steinway upright look inside and try to
find those "tubular-metal action rails" and those snazzy "signature"
Steinway flanges. Hey, they're missing! And so are the butts, damper-  
levers, wippens and countless other parts that used to make Steinway a
Steinway. Why? Maybe they weren't so well designed in the first place,
huh? Right. And maybe if you wait up Christmas eve you might see Santa
slide down the chimney, too! 
  
The two most common action problems encountered on these old Steinways
are action parts are so worn out from use that they can no longer be
salvaged, or else the presence of an action-killer clalled "Verdigris",
or, simply, "The Greenies." Both are major headaches. You must deter-
mine the condition of the action before you can possibly give an esti-
mate for making it functional again. If you have ALREADY given an esti-
mate, without examining the action closely, you're dead. Consider mov-
ing out of town and changing your name annd phone number.No kidding.

Assuming that you're still alive here, pull the action. Warning: you
better own an action cradle! If you try to set the action on your bench
it will promptly fall over, undoubtedly breaking numerous fragile parts,
causing you to have to raise you estimate considerably. OK, it's in the
action cradle. Now what? Put your finger on the back of each hammer and
GENTLY wiggle it from side to side. Try the same thing with the wippens,
and then--gulp--the damper levers. Chances are that you are going to
find an extreme amout of side-to-side play in the hammers and wippens
indicating severely worn action centers. Worse you're certain to find
excessive play in the damper levers. Loosen the little retaining plate
on one, remove it and take a close look at it. See that little groove
in the lever that holds and squares the lever to the centerpin? See
how it's worn so badly that the lever rubs against it neighbors and
in the process misses one or two of the strings it's supposed to dam-
pen. If so, you've got the "Old Steinway Damper-Lever Blues!" A killer
to fix unless you can find exact replacements. LOTS O' LUCK. You see,
those damper levers are unlike any others you've ever seen, or will
ever see again unless you do another Steinway upright of similar vintage.   
I'll explain in a minute.

Now's as good a time as any to get the rest of the bad news. You know
how modern uprights use damper spoons to lift the dampers when the key
is depressed? SURPRISE! Your 1970 Steinway doesn't have damper spoons
at all. Take a look at the back of the wippen. He,he,he. Instead of a
spoon you find a wooden flange into which is inserted an adjusting screw
which is accessed by a HOLE in the BOTTOM of the damper lever! You know,
the ones that are worn so bad you can't reuse them. So if you want to re-
tain the integrity of the action, your're going to have to come up with
similar wippens and damper levers. These, as you may have already assumed,
are not readily-available, over-the-counter items. For that matter, you
can't even get them UNDER-the-counter, unless you're lucky anough to find
another tech who's "parting out" an old action.It happens. Sometimes. IF  
you're lucky. Are you feeling "lucky" so far? Stick with me. More good
news follows. :)

Verdigris. The "greenies". The action-killer. Push the hammer rail for-
ward until all the hammer are touching the strings. Release the hammer
rail. Do all the hammer quickly return to their rest position, or do they
just seem to float back there in slow motion, or maybe not even get all
the way back at all? Try the jacks. Push down on the heel of each one with
a thin bladed screwdriver, then release it quickly. Does it pop back
smartly to its rest position, or does it, too, seemingly move in slow
motion. Remove a hammer and its flange from the high treble where there
are no dampers. look at the side of the flange. Can you see the felt
bushing and the end of the centerpin, or are they covered with a dark-
green waxy substance?  Lastly, look at the underside of the flange, More
green stuff? Sluggish action centers and the presence of Verdegris, mean
that you have big-time problems brewing. And you were worried about those
damper levers!

Stick with me. I won't beat up on you TOO much longer. Question: Have you
ever made a hammer spring rail? You know, fabricated one from scratch?
Get ready. In something this old it is probable that the hammer springs
are shot--too weak to do the job, even once you have the action centers
working freely, and so brittle that they'll break when you try to bend
them. And don't even think about using those "broken hammer spring repair"
do-dads sold by the supply houses. I once saw a Steinway were the tech had
installed 88 of those babies IN ADDITION to the original springs. 176
springs, 2 per hammer, PLUS about a quart of WD-40 (another no-no) and the
recalcitrant hammers still just ever-so-slowly " moseyed" back to their
rest positions. A new hammer rail is a distinct possibility.

I COULD go on and on, but I won't. Enough. Probably more than enough, but
you get the idea. THOROUGHLY check out the action in your piano, look-
ing for the problems I mentioned above and you'll have a much better idea
of what you're up against. Pianotech includes some of the finest techni-
cians not just in the country, but in the world. When you post back
they'll be able to guide you  through the intricacies of fabricating a
hammer-spring rail, dealing with Verdigris, rebushing old flanges,
salvaging old action parts, or adapting new ones to your needs, and the
zillion other problems you're likely to run into when working on that old
dinosaur.

Early on, you'll discover that one approach to severely worn action parts
and extensive Verdigris is to replace ALL the action parts with new ones.
Genuine Steinway replacement parts have't been avaiable from Steinway,
itself, for DECADES, however, new "knock-off" replacewments ARE available 
from a couple of places, Wally B and Japan (!) for two. That's the good
news. The bad news is the price. Astronomical, relatively speaking, even
at the wholesale level. So keep those brown cords handy when checking the
cost of rebuilding the entire action with new parts. And keep a pair in
reserve for the piano's owner when you give him the estimate. There IS a
bright side to this approach, however. Since this is a 7 octave piano,
you're only going to need 85 of everything instead of 88! :)

You're also going to run into technicians who will advise you to "junk
that clunk". They'll tell you that because of all the problems I outlined
above--PLUS all the others I didn't even tell you about!-- the piano is
just not worth the time and expense that it would take to salvage it and
that the money would be best used if it were applied to a new piano. They
will recommend that YOU part out the action to others dumb enough to try
to save one of these worn-out relics of the past and then smash the case
to smithereens, use it as kindling in your fireplace and roast weenies
over the blaze. A lot of techs support this position. As a matter of fact,
I would guess that if old Jonas Chickering and his sons were alive today
and on-line with Pianotech, they would readily volunteer their services
to any tech contemplating such a course of action. I'm equally sure that
not only would they bring their own chain saws and sledge hammers, but
that they'd bring the weenies, too!

I would suggest approaching this piano as a learning experience. You're
not only going to learn a lot about old Steinways, you're going to learn
something about yourself as well. Further, if you persevere, if you
stick with it, if you go on to do other old Steinways, you may in time
come to appreciate why, against competition such as this, Chickering never
really had a chance. No chance at all.

Best of luck. Enjoy the experience!

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net