What David said - amen!
"My feeling is yes, for historical accuracy and value, my hunch is it is worth far less with the action parts it now has. Not to mention the poor grade hammers and being in need of a re-string. If I am wrong about any of this please tell me. Mike
Historical accuracy? Is this piano destined for a museum? Is this one of the very few remaining S&S model B's?
The piano sounds like toast. Too many years and too many repairs. Sounds like a decent frame (with some reinforcement) with which to build a nice piano (did you inspect/hear Ron Nossaman's redesigned/remanufactured S&S B in Rochester NY a couple years ago?),
Sounds to me like the piano is toast - why not make a real piano out of it?
Terry Farrell
----- Original Message -----
From: David Love
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 8:30 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Several Questions RE;1905 Steinway B w/Teflon Bushings, Strung w/#6 pins
I she got it for $5000 then do a complete rebuild with new board, block, action, dampers, etc. She'll have a nice piano when it's done for a reasonable price.
David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Michael Magness
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 5:22 PM
To: Pianotech List; caut at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Several Questions RE; 1905 Steinway B w/Teflon Bushings, Strung w/#6 pins
Hello all,
Firstly sorry for the cross posting but I need as broad of a knowledge base as possible on this one. Looking for advice, theories, suggestions.
I recently acquired a new customer, she relocated to this area from somewhere in New York state. She acquired this piano "rebuilt and/or restrung" from a music store for the princely sum of $5000 in 1977. She was told it had been acquired from a monastery that had been closed, that it had been rebuilt and/or restrung, she liked the tone and bought it.
She had a regular tech in New York who cared for it and kept it reasonable condition for her.
When she moved here it had not been tuned for a couple of years due to the move, the new(used)home not being ready and other factors.
My first contact was in October when I was to clean and tune it, I found the action virtually impossible to remove, the very large round headed screws on the hammer flanges were catching and digging into the underside of the pinblock. Since we were still well into the high humidity season I suggested the cleaning wait until the winter tuning and just tuned it at that appointment. I found it to be 25 to 30c flat through the bass and tenor and a full half tone flat in the upper treble. I brought this to her attention and suggested a re-tune as soon as the heating season was in full swing for a few weeks.
We made the 2nd appointment for the second week in December, to clean, tune and fix the squeaky pedal that had developed. The morning of the appointment she called to suggest I bring whatever might be needed for a loose tuning pin as one unison had gone significantly out of tune overnight.
I arrived, tried tuning the offending string and watched my hammer rotate back. The coil was already very close to the plate so I unhooked the string backed out the pin and sized it preparing to go oversize, it was a #6. Up to this point I had not paid much attention to the pin size as it had not been an issue, now looking at the rest of the pins, I could see they were all the same(no.6) size. I had managed to remove the action by levering the action rail down slightly to drag it under the pin block then once it was under, just scratching it's way out.
Oh and yes for those who will ask, I did try raising the glides to see if that would help, it didn't
I had also noticed something odd about the action at a glance, the "felt" around the bushings wasn't red, it was white. When I looked closer I saw they were all Teflon bushings, the entire whippen and the hammer flanges are Teflon bushings.
Someone, on purpose, replaced all of the original whippens and flanges with new ones with Teflon bushings. Perhaps it had vertigris and this was a cheap way of eliminating it for a dealer concerned with salability AND not having it come back to bite him on the behind a few years later?
It has an average gram/touch weight of 60 to 62gms. It needs regulation but shouldn't the lower friction of the Teflon bushings make for a lighter touch? I have NO experience with teflon bushings advice please, remember this action WASN'T designed for them>
The hammers don't appear to be anything extraordinary, they look like stock hammers from Apsco or Schaff from the 70's.
Today I CA'd the bass and lower tenor as a temporary way of tuning it until she can afford to restring it, with a new block, I believe it is the original block in it now.
The question she asked, to which I wasn't positive of the answer was, do we need to replace the whippens and hammershanks/flanges due to the Teflon?
My feeling is yes, for historical accuracy and value, my hunch is it is worth far less with the action parts it now has. Not to mention the poor grade hammers and being in need of a re-string.
If I am wrong about any of this please tell me.
Flamesuit firmly zipped in place!
(grin)
Mike
I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
Steven Wright
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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