Lovely birdcage - what to do?

[John Ross]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
MessageAll looks original to me.
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Geoff Sykes 
  To: Pianotech@Ptg. Org 
  Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 9:37 PM
  Subject: Lovely birdcage - what to do?



  Greetings all --

  I had my first birdcage yesterday. I think I lucked out. Yeah, difficult to work on, but considering it is probably over 100 years old the thing looked practically new. A Carl H. Hintz, made in Germany. I could not find a serial number but a medallion on the fall board says 1900. See below for links to the photos I took.

  The woman who owns this piano inherited if from her mom about 30 years ago. She says that her family purchased it from it's previous owner when she was six. My guess is that translates to about 50 years ago. The current owner has played it but claims she has never had it tuned or any other work performed on it since she took ownership 30 years ago. Had I not already seen this piano before agreeing to work on it I might have had second thoughts about the job. But the thing is gorgeous and I wanted to add birdcage experience to my accomplishments. 

  The piano is clean and in incredibly good shape. It's obvious that sometime just prior to my customer receiving the piano some major work was done on it. New strings, pins, bridges, hammers, felts etc. Since it has been played for 30 years the hammers need reshaping but all the rest of the felt is almost like new. 

  Aside from sharing the photos of this piano I also have a couple of questions. The only thing apparently NOT replaced or repaired on this piano was the pinblock. Which actually sort of makes sense. And while it is unquestionably on the loose side it will actually, just barely, hold a tuning. For how long...? 

  Even a good piano, after 30 years, is not going to sound even remotely good. This one definitely sounded dreadful. A4 was at 409. I was advised by a couple of techs NOT to attempt a pitch raise but to just bring it into tune wherever it already was. They said that the piano was never designed to be tuned to 440 and chances are the soundboard and/or plate could sustain damage if I tried to bring it up to that. I brought it up to 415 only because that was as low as I could get PRCT to go. And it held. And she was happy.

  Question 1: Given the overall great condition of the rest of the piano, is it a candidate for a thin CA glue treatment to the pins to improve tuning stability?

  Question 2: Should the answer to question 1 be yes, what pitch should this piano realistically be tuned to?

  The owner is willing to put "some" money into making it play better because even in tune the worn hammers make it sound pretty funky. Is it worth it? In fact, what do you people think this piano is worth?

  The following photos are for reference to my above questions, and your enjoyment.

  This is a front view of the piano, with everything in place. I noticed that the left and right panels had the screw holes filled where the candelabras used to be. Had I not looked really closely I never would have noticed. 
  http://tinyurl.com/82gst

  This is a close up of the center of the front panel. The flowers are engraved into the wood. 
  http://tinyurl.com/b99ac

  The fallboard had two medallions on either side of a nameplate casting. Here is the left medallion.
  http://tinyurl.com/dxvgn

  Here is the nameplate casting.
  http://tinyurl.com/8rbra

  And here is the right medallion, showing the date of 1900.
  http://tinyurl.com/ccou5

  This is a straight on view of the action. The brass is shiny. The damper wires shine. The screws, strings and pins are undamaged and show no signs of rust. The wood is so clean that I find it hard to believe that it is original, and the felt is like new. Even the bridle straps are in good condition.
  http://tinyurl.com/7k7sl

  This is the bass bridge. Obviously new. Not a scratch or crack anywhere.
  http://tinyurl.com/8nnfe

  This is the treble bridge. Again, obviously new. Not a scratch or crack anywhere. I'm surprised, though, at the older look of the pins.
  http://tinyurl.com/8xmmv

  This is the plate and pinblock and all that stuff. Look how clean everything is.
  http://tinyurl.com/dr5jj

  And finally, the soundboard. Is this new, or has just been expertly restored?
  http://tinyurl.com/djssr


  I'm looking forward to your comments and suggestions.


  -- Geoff Sykes
  -- Assoc. Los Angeles

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/b3/03/8d/34/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--