early Bluethner

[Dave Nereson]

    Woops, I sent my last message too soon.  After looking at your pictures, 
I can see that the one I referred to [the 1856  7'6" ]  is very similar, 
just 3 years newer.  If serial no. 86 was 1853, and serial no. 1925 was 
1856, that's 1,839 pianos made in 3 years, or 613 per year, which would be 
roughly 2 and half pianos per day.  Sounds reasonable, but is dependent on 
what month (how early or late in the year) the two pianos were built.
    The serial no. on "mine" was definitely stamped into the wood with 
punches and was in the front left corner of the soundboard, I think, or 
maybe on the rim just above that area.
    The round bar or "pipe" on yours (is that the "capo"?) is not present on 
the one I service.  Instead it has a "front bridge" with bridge pins and 
notching, just like the main bridge, where agraffes would be on modern 
pianos.  Then for the two treble sections it has a heavy capo bar, square on 
three sides -- I forget how the underside is shaped.   The legs on "mine" 
are more massive, but otherwise the case is very much similar, even the 
color and grain of the wood.
    To remove the keyslip, you just rotate two levers (like a one-winged 
wing nut), and the keyslip drops down.  How simple!  The fallboard just 
lifts out.  No springs, screws, or latches.  The action has wooden action 
brackets.  According to the regulating instructions, the front rail 
punchings are sort of secondary; the dip is determined by a rail in back 
that drops down like a damper stop rail, except it stops the keys.  The 
action tends to have a problem with jacks skipping out from under the hopper 
(I believe it's called), which, if worn, allows let-off to occur too early. 
And the shape of them makes it quite difficult to remedy by bolstering.  A 
sticker drops down from each shank, where the knuckle would be on modern 
pianos, and sits in a hole in the wippen.  So every time you lift up a shank 
to do anything to a hammer, it comes out of its hole and has to be relocated 
with a hemostat or tweezers or something -- a bit of a pain, but like 
anything, after you do it enough, it's not so bad.
    An interesting piano to work on and to observe how things were done back 
then.   How the soundboard and pinblock survived all the moves and changes 
of climate (Austria to California to Colorado), I don't know.
    --David Nereson, RPT