Question from a rank amatuer

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

I tuned a '29 Brambach baby G Friday.  Had a really sweet tone, no 
beats in the treble.  All rear stringing unbraided.  Weird whippens, 
the balancier stopped short of the jack and had a big bolstered 
leather pad, teflon anyone?  Someone had re-whatevered it to about 
1/4"+/- dip and the action wasn't cycling.  Luckily only the white 
keys and it was quick work to pull the card stock.
The damper underlevers were all resting on the keys and with some 
twenty years weren't doing too good a job of damping too (felt 
compacted and not reaching the strings as well).  The hammers had 
been nicely filed and the stroke was 2" +/- and let-off over 
1/4".  Only had time to do so much after a huge pitch correction.  At 
least with 3/8" dip the hammers no longer bobbled off of the jacks on 
soft playing.

The rim is quite thin.  I did a large overpull tuning like I do on a 
D and than voiced the rear terminations and bearings, did another 
overpull tuning and then worked on the action and voiced the front 
terminations.  I had to do yet another overpull tuning with the pitch 
5-8 cents flat.  Sure is gratifying when a dull sounding piano comes 
alive like that and becomes playable.

Now to get back there and re-time the dampers.  With timing that 
early it felt rather heavy.

Andrew Anderson

At 09:03 PM 5/6/2006, you wrote:
>This would be one of the original Brambach pianos. Mark Campbell did 
>not take over the company until 1912. Even then the transformation 
>from the original Brambach and the later, much more mass-produced 
>pianos did not take place immediately. This might be quite a nice 
>piano. Given that it is now some 94 years old and its original 
>builders only expected it to last something on the order of 20 to 25 years.
>
>Del
>
>
>
>----------
>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] 
>On Behalf Of Joseph Garrett
>Sent: May 06, 2006 6:44 PM
>To: pianotech
>Subject: Re: Question from a rank amatuer
>
>".... has been restoring a 1910 Brambach piano."
>
>Is  this  a Grand or  an  Upright???  Need  to know!  If  it's  a 
>grand,  there are  some  anomolies  with  the Brambach,  that  I 
>can  answer,  as I  own  one,  that  is  a "loner 
>piano",  that  MUST be up to snuff.  Keeping  it 
>that  way  does  present  challenges, even  for me.<G>
>Keep in mind that Brambach pianos, 
>in  general,  were  inexpensive  pianos,  made  to  "fly out  the 
>door"!<G>  Some  of   the engineering  and materials 
>were  truly  suspect,  IMO. They can  be decent, however.
>Regards,
>
>
>Joe Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon)
>Captain, Tool Police
>Squares R I
>
>

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