M&H upright plate removal (was: key duplication/uprights)

[Mark Dierauf]

Brian, et al -

  I have another good canidate for serious rebuilding/re-manufacturing in my
basement. It's a 1902 Mason & Hamlin upright, model "O" 55" tall. As beat as
it is, it's still a very impresive sounding instrument. However, the
bridges, pinblock, and board are shot. Problem is, there's no way to get the
plate out without removing the sides and although there are some bad glue
joints elsewhere on the piano, the sides are glued on rock-solid. The case
is put together sort of like some old S&S uprights I've seen, where you can
remove 6 large screws from the inside of each side and separate the 'front
half' of the sides so that they come out with the keybed and cheeks as a
unit. On this M&H though, there are no screws and the 'inside' part of the
sides covers the edge of the plate above the keybed as well as the plate
perimeter screws in that area. I've seen other old M&H's that were
constructed the same way, as well as old Vose uprights. Anybody ever tackled
this problem before? I sure would like to get this sucker apart!

- Mark

>
> Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 08:37:43 -0500
> From: "Brian Trout" <btrout@desupernet.net>
> Subject: Re: key duplication/uprights
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> I've had this gut feeling also, that someday people at large might just
> figure out that some of those old uprights could be pretty nice pianos if
> they were _really_ restored / rebuilt.
>
> It seems that the upright is in a time warp about 30 years behind the
grand,
> at least in this country.  30 years ago, a person who "rebuilt" a grand
was
> likely giving it the ol'  _ file the hammers, replace the keytops, maybe
> replace the dampers, maybe restring with oversize pins, spraypaint the
plate
> as accessible, and if they wanted to be fancy, maybe even refinish the
> soundboard, hoping not to have to touch those bridges..._   Right now,
> there's a lot of old upright pianos that have gotten a similar treatment
(or
> less), and have been passed off as rebuilt.  It's no wonder the upright
has
> gotten the public reputation of being the clunky old dinosaur that'll be
> dead soon with no hope of resurrection.
>
> Someday, people are going to find out that a good rebuilder can take an
old
> upright piano, and turn it into a fine piano, and a nice playing
instrument.
> And some of them have cabinets on them like you just can't buy new
anymore.
>
> The uprights have a big advantage in that they have a very large
soundboard,
> and much longer strings than many of the tiny little "baby grands" (I hate
> that term).  If an upright piano would receive a new soundboard, new
> bridges, a new pinblock, rescaling, some keyboard work, and basically a
new
> action, (much like what the high end rebuilders of grands are doing now),
I
> think people would be surprised at the tonal and structural quality of
> instrument that they would have.  There was a thread a while back on
whether
> to rebuild a Steiff upright.  Wow, what a piano to rebuild!  If done well,
> it could likely blow away a lot of new pianos out there.  (LaPetites, look
> out!)
>
> There are limits to what a rebuilder can do.  There were a lot of old
> uprights out there that deservingly went to 'piano heaven' long ago.  Some
> were really not very good pianos.  But a fair number of them were very
solid
> ly built, and very much over-engineered by today's design standards.
>
> I have in the back of my mind to rebuild an upright piano someday, not
> sparing the expense of giving it the whole enchilada, going the whole nine
> yards, taking it farther than this guy has ever taken an upright before...
> I just haven't found the right one yet.  I've found nice cabinets around
> some of the lesser pianos, and plain cabinets around some of the nicer
> pianos.  I'm just looking for that nice fancy old cabinet around an old
> Steiff or similarly built piano.  When the time is right it'll happen.
>
> Sorry if I waxed rhapsodic there for a moment... <g>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Brian Trout
> Quarryville, PA
> btrout@desupernet.net
>