1890's Everett upright

[John Voigt]

I tuned an 1890's vintage Everett upright today and have a few observations,
gripes, and questions.

Observations:  There were a number of features that I hadn't seen on other
pianos.  It had a felt mute rail that was easier to remove than most.  It
rides in a slot and has rods on either end to accuate it.  This rods are
released simply by pulling them out of a fork, much like the rubber grommets
in the fork of a spinet.  The action posts are held in by cam locks rather
than screws or nuts making action removal easier.  Also, lost motion
regulation is accomplished by a screw and button arrangement on the bottom
of the sticker like that used for let-off.  This is very visible and
accessible.

Gripes:  This piano has a very nice black finish and a beautifull open face
pin block, but the strings have so little height over the plate that it
makes it very difficult to keep a felt mute in place.  I tried three
different thicknesses of felt, but even at best, it didn't take much of a
blow to the strings to cause the mute to pop out from between the strings.
The plate was so close that it made it difficult to even insert a stick
mute.  Tuning time was greatly increased.  Also, in the bicord section most
of the hammers were striking to the left of where they should.  At best,
they would hardly strike the right string.  At worst, they would slightly
strike the string of the next lower note.  Alignment on the tricords and
monocords was good.  Heating shanks and moving them to the right caused them
to get hung up on a neighboring hammer.  Trying to loosen the hammer flange
screw and retighten it in position was fruitless.  Oh yeah, someone
previously filed the hammers at an angle so that even if the hammers were
aligned properly, they would probably still only strike the left string.

Questions:  Is there a fix for the hammers other than filing the hammers and
replacing the shanks?
Has anyone else ever experinced a situation with the plate being so close to
the strings?  It is a shame that this piano has features that make
regulation and repair easy, but make tuning difficult.

John Voigt
Avon, SD