1920's Wurli Grand

[Michael Magness]

On 10/13/07, Dean May <deanmay at pianorebuilders.com> wrote:
>
>  You should tell her that you can make it better, but you can't make it
> sound like a 9 foot.
>
>
>
> Del Fandrich talks about improving the sound on small grands with a couple
> of tricks, neither for the faint hearted. First you rescale the bass,
> positioning the bass bridge as far forward as the plate will allow. You are
> trying to eliminate the apron and increase the backscale length. Del has
> empirically proven that aprons absorb all the lower frequencies of the
> strings leaving nothing to go into the soundboard. When ordering the strings
> specify the very short Jolly Loop. Or better yet, replace the hitch pins
> with vertical pins that have a little grove cut around the top. The groove
> allows the string to pivot more freely up and down as the string oscillates.
>  Make sure you use high quality bass strings- I recommend Arledge.
>
>
>
> The second thing you can do is "float" the soundboard. This involves
> making a cut through the soundboard in the tail area and reinforcing the cut
> edge. Alternatively, you can router a groove around the perimeter of the
> soundboard in that area. Search the archives for more info here.
>
>
>
> I would recommend you hire Del as a consultant if you want to pursue
> either avenue: fandrich at pianobuilders.com
>
>
>
>
>
> *Dean*
>
> Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
>
> PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
>
> Terre Haute IN  47802
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Brian Doepke
> *Sent:* Friday, October 12, 2007 8:53 PM
> *To:* 'Pianotech List'
> *Subject:* 1920's Wurli Grand
>
>
>
> I have a client who, several years ago, bought a 1920's Wurli Grand off of
> e-bay.  I have been working on it regularly, tuning every 6 months so it is
> now up to A440. I have also reshaped the hammers.  There are a couple slight
> cracks in the soundboard.  The keys are "sloppy" compared to status of what
> they should be.  I am sure that many of you have run into a similar
> instrument.
>
>
>
> The client now wants to talk about what can be done to bring back the
> "big, rich sound" of a grand.  She wants to discuss string replacement as a
> way of getting her "grand sound".
>
>
>
> Is this even worthwhile?  I am afraid of doing the restringing only to
> have the sound fall short of what the client wants.   Should I consider the
> saying "Even if you put a dress and make-up on a pig…it's still a pig."?
>
>
>
> *Brian P. Doepke, (dep-kee)*
>
> *R.P.T. (Registered Piano Technician)*
>
> *AAA Piano Works, Inc.*
>
> Piano Tuning-Repair-Purchase Consults
>
> *260.417.1298*
>
> *260.432.2043*
>
> *    www.aaapianoworks.com*
>
> Hi Brian,
>
I have taken a middle of the road approach with a couple of small Kimballs
that came my way with some minor success. I won't go so far as to say they
became the famed silk purses from the sow's ear they were but I did manage
to improve on what they were in a significant fashion. I don't recall if
Wurli used them or not but the Kimball's had the pear shaped knuckles so I
replaced the shanks & flanges along with hammer replacement using Abel
liights. I rebushed keys on both and regulated them that was the extent of
the work on the 5' Kimball.
However on the 4'6" Kimball it was the customer's wish to restring it, after
consulting some of the more knowledgable people in my chapter about using
Arledge or someone to rescale the bass, we decided against it. The piano was
just too small to benefit from a bass rescale was the common feeling so I
went with Mapes copies of the originals. I used a Delignet block and bored &
machined the hammers using Spurlock's methods and jigs. My customer is a
guest artist at several churches in the area but did not have room in his
home for a larger grand plus this piano was a gift from an old family friend
so he had no initial investment in it.

He is delighted with the tonal improvement, the responsiveness and the fact
that it plays and sounds like a more significant instrument than it is.

My advice to you would be to advise your customer that her piano wasn't a
"great" piano from the getgo and probably never had a big rich grand piano
sound. That you can probably improve the sound quite a bit over what it
currently is but you will not promise a big rich sound, at best only a
larger richer sound than it currently has. If that is truly what she must
have perhaps a slightly larger better piano would be the answer. I'm
guessing you could find something more suitable either rebuilt or
rebuildable.

Mike

-- 
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing
is to not stop questioning.-- Albert Einstein



Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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