>Dear wise and wonderful wizards <g>, Welcome, grasshopper. >I came across your forum via a search I was doing, and hope you can >offer me guidance. > >I do props for stage plays, movies, etc. Some years ago, I acquired a >old upright piano, with nice carvings and detail buried beneath >horrendous 1970's olive green enamel paint. The piano was made by >"Horace Waters & Co., of New York", probably 1900-1920. >The piano, besides its too-far-from-trendy paint job, clearly has some >broken hammers, and most of the casters are trashed. It doesn't roll, >it shoves. And lifting it takes more strong men than can fit around >it. Not practical as a prop! > >I'd like to gut the piano to remove all possible weight, then rig the >keys to appear to work. I'd refinish or wood-grain-paint the exterior, >and would have a lightweight but attractive prop piano. >When I acquired this beast, I checked with my local used-piano retailer, >and they said the piano had no particular unusual value, so I wouldn't >be destroying a valuable antique. > >Question 1) is this a piano of some value, that I wouldn't want to >gut? Anyone cringing as they read this? From your description I seriously doubt this piano has any value. I'm not cringing, I have one I am that I am turning into an aquarium... >Question 2) If I can gut it, any particular suggestions? I can reach >the tops of the strings to loosen and unattach them, but how do I get to >the bottom strings? The front board underneath the key bed comes out very easily. Usually there is a sprung steel band at the top center of this board, right under the key bed. Push this up with one hand and pull the entire bottom board toward you from the top. The bottom of this board rests on dowel pegs so by lifting up slightly your in business. > Any tricks to getting the extremely heavy >brass/bronze/lead <g> sounding board out? Yes,and be careful. First of all, at the correct pitch, this piano is under aprox. twenty tons of compression tension. Tension must be lowered evenly. Don't just go in there and start cutting strings or you could be in for the surprise of your life. >Can I buy/rent/borrow the >right tool to loosen/remove the strings, or is it a standard size >socket? A tuning pin is not any standard or metric size. It is four sided and tapered and the only effective tool is a tuning hammer. Cheap ones go for thirty bucks or so. Some tuners may loan you one, others would be highly offended. Kind of like asking a mechanic to borrow their tools. >Question 3) Is there any use for the parts removed (anyone needing them >for a similar piano?), or should I just take them to the recycler? Very unlikely. The strings and pins are steel. The plate (what you referred to as the sounding board) is cast iron. The sound board is the spruce panel under the plate. Cast them out. >Question 4) <g> Anyone in Atlanta willing to help, for not-much-money? > Call my friend Sandy West. She is the head of tech service at Cooper Music. She may be skeptical at first but tell her I sent you. If you happen to have red hair, your in the club. Hilary, this part is important. Be careful lowering the tension of this bird. You will be releasing an enormous amount of potential energy. Get a tuning hammer, ask Sandy, buy her red wine. When you get the tension off the strings, you have to start cutting. You will need a VERY good set of cutters. Strings are made of the highest grade of steel and will trash most cutters. Once strings are cut and with the bottom board off, it will be obvious to you how to remove them. Now you will have to remove the tuning pins. You can do it with a tuning hammer. Most re-builders have a bit that fits into a drill to make this easier. Then you can start thinking about removing the plate. If your lucky, you can remove all the screws and bolts and get it out by lifting and sliding it out the end. It is likely, however, that you will have to remove the entire key bed assembly to be able to lift it high enough to get it out. Now the piano will be much lighter and easier to move. Buy a set of "jiffy leads" from a piano tuner and screw one onto the back of each key. This will make the keys move up and down to give you the visual effect of playing the piano. Also, lay the piano on it's back and remove the old broken casters. Buy a decent set at the hardware store and put them on and moving will be easier. You can do all this but I recommend that you hire a piano technician to do it for you. Ask Sandy if she knows of a hungry tuner that will do it cheap. Let me know if you have any questions. You probably got several responses already and all this is moot. peace, chris -- -Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T. -School of Music, Ohio University -Athens, OH 45701 -mailto:purdy@ohio.edu -(740) 593-1656 office -(740) 593-1429 fax
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC