Ron, You do what you would do for any other piano. If its been in storage for a while it's probably pretty dirty. Start by pulling the action and cleaning the whole thing. Action, belly, keybed, etc. Pull the lyre, if necessary and tighten up the pedals. Make sure the pedal rods work smoothly and quietly. Make sure the trapwork is in workable condition. Now start on the action. Pull the stack and check it over. How much wear are there on the hammers? Surface (don't "reshape") them. Clean & Teflon the knuckles. How are the action centers? Free them or pin them as necessary. Lube them with McLube. Tighten any and all action screws. Look at the keys and keyframe. How are the key bushings? Replace them if necessary. How about the keyframe felts? Ditto. Level the keys if necessary. Reassemble the stack to the keyframe and slide the assembly into the action cavity. Check hammer/string alignment. Go ahead, try the shift pedal as well. Now just regulate the action and do a good job of it. It may well be the first time this has ever been done! Going to the belly, pitch raise the thing -- I'm assuming it needs it -- and check the strings and bridges. Lightly -- please, lightly -- tap the strings down on the bridges. Make at least one pass over the front end and level them. Snug down the pinblock screws and rim screws/bolts. Now tune the thing. It probably won't do much good to fuss overly long over hammer voicing, but you should certainly even things out after sanding them. You might also want to spend a little time on the casework. If it is pretty well beat up, you might consider practicing your touch-up skills. Clean it thoroughly. Maybe even rub it down with plastic wool and some cleaning polish. It was my experience that both faculty and students treated a good looking piano better -- and thought better of them -- than they did one that looked ratty. Obviously, I'm leaving a lot out here, but you get the idea. There are no magic bullets: just straight forward piano servicing. There is no reason why these little pianos cannot play well. How the sound is another matter, but the actions are -- or can usually be made to be -- serviceable. While this piano will never be suitable for the concert stage, it can still be a very decent little piano for a practice room, a class room, or whatever. Aside from attempting to educate them, there may not be much you can do about the teachers who want to use this piano for concerts or recordings. I'm hoping, of course, that this is not the best piano they have available for these purposes. Is it? Good luck Regards, Del ------------------------------------------------------------------ Ron Koval wrote: > Now, my question. > > At the school where I work, I've moved a Whitney grand (itty bitty) > into a storeroom for additional practice for some of our students. I > know this piano has gotten some PSO (piano shaped object) references in > the past, but I'd like to make this thing sound nice. One teacher has > expressed an interest in using this for recording - yikes! Since I work > at the school, time is really no object, but money is. It would be hard > to convince the money people to pay to rescale, or re hammer this > instrument. I'll try any voicing, tuning (Bill B. did you mention an > appropriate HT for small pianos a while back?) regulating hints that the > list may come up with and post back the results. Also any recording > tricks to come up with a "good" sound? > > Ron greatfullforthislist Koval > Curie High School for the Technical and Fine Arts > Chicago > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC