when it rains, it pours!

[Ron Koval]

Hi all - 

Our school is getting not one, but two 9' pianos donated this year.  
I've spent the last couple of years convincing the administration to 
redo our 7' Baldwin. (came back great, new finish, block, hammers, tunes 
like a dream again.)  Now I get to work on a couple of instruments with 
potential to fill our 1000 seat auditorium.

By the way, my name is Ron Koval, I work (days) at Curie High School in 
Chicago.  We were Chicago's Public high school for the performing and 
creative arts, but we have recently been changed to a Career Center.  
This is fine for our large Voc/Tech department, but the people down at 
the board of education didn't quite know what to do with all these 
"arts" people.  We are still here, but the future is uncertain.(I guess 
they don't think of the arts as a career option.)

I'm full time at this school as an instrument technician.  All the 
instruments from band, orchestra, guitar, piano, and electronic music 
get brought to me to be fixed.  It keeps me busy, too busy many times to 
worry about fine adjustments.  "Just keep 'em playing"

I should be able, however to do some nice things for these nine footers.  
One will share the stage with our 7', and the other will find a 
temporary home in the dance studio.

Both instruments are from the 1920's

Stieff was abandonded in the board of education dead end junk warehouse.  
I found it after a tip from a teacher that was looking for large power 
tools.  Cracked lid, broken fallboard, and REALLY grooved hammers.  No 
cracks in the soundboard, pinblock holding well.  I vacuumed a bunch, 
shaped the hammers, made the action work, glued some ivories, and tuned 
a bunch.....I think it will be nice!  It has the iron wound strings (4 
notes, 12 strings) that were in a recent thread.
They are dead sounding. I'll replace them, (any hints? Schaff says they 
can translate them into copper, no problem.) and regulate the action.  I 
won't be able to replace the hammers yet, the piano dept. would like to 
use it for 2 piano works in the spring. (isn't that this friday?!?)  :)

Kimball, partially stripped, "rebuilt" (new block, strings, hammers, 
many action parts) by an associate with the PTG.  He took up piano 
rebuilding in his retirement years.  The dampers rattle a lot in the 
bass, I think maybe the guide rail needs to be rebushed.  He passed away 
and now his wife would like to donate this Kimball to our school. It's 
currently stuck in the basement (he got it down there!) waiting for 
better weather.  Any estimates of value for tax purposes?  I know we can 
get it refinished for around $3000.

I too am interested in the RCT or Tunelab.  I don't have a laptop, but 
I'm investigating the used market.  

Does any one have stretch numbers measuring the fundimental tone only?  
I see in tunelab and the accutuner numbers that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 
6th partial are used for the lower register.  I'm curious as to how that 
then relates to the fundimental tone.

Thanks to the list, this is a gold mine. (yes sometimes we dig through a 
lot of dirt to find that nugget that applies to us)  I never really 
considered the PTG until I found the list.  Am currently trying to join 
the Chicago chapter.  I'll keep you posted on the condition of the arts 
in the public high school sector.

Ron Koval


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