I was looking at a 5'-ish 1928 Chickering grand, rebuilt, the other day. New hammers, strings, keytops refinished, et cetera and so on. Plays very nicely. I like it. The bridges have very small repaired cracks, seemingly well-done, and so that settles whether or not it is a new soundboard... Looking at the soundboard from the underside, it appears that the rebuilder decided it was in good enough condition to not even require repair. There are a few (around 4) narrow cracks here and there, no sign of any shimming or anything similar. Returning to the top of the piano, it seems that the cracks have been filled in from the top with some sort of filler putty... What is this? I've never heard recommendation for any procedure like this before. Wouldn't putting putty in the cracks just encourage them to get bigger but not smaller, or does the putty somehow "glue" the cracked pieces together? The putty in the soundboard seems to smack of corners cut, which goes against the rest of the piano's good workmanship. Anybody know anything about doing this? -Tyler Smith
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC