Todd, I just visited your homepage (BTW, link to virtual action does not work). You don´t seem to be an absolute beginner. So, just be courageous and pull that damn thing out :-) Working on overdampers is not hard or difficult but just annoying and sometimes fumbling around. Here in Germany we see a lot of them and my policy is not to maintain them, I only tune them and that´s it. This is common sense here. But with a certain degree of doggedness, sympathy and financial generosity a customer could convince me to do some repairs on his birdcage. Mostly these birdcages are not worth to put money into it, with 2 exceptions: Ibach and Blüthner overdampers. Some rebuilders even rebuild them into underdamper actions. So, be happy it´s a Blüthner. I am shure it´s much easier to get an overdamper action out then to get a drop action out of a piano. Most of them have a metal bolt on each side to pull out before removing the action. Some even have regular screws like modern actions, e.g. Ibach and I believe some Blüthners. Just remove these bolts (or regular screws), tilt the action in your direction and pull it away upwards. No secrets, no tricks, at least on a Blüthner. Some overdamper actions are fixed at the keyframe, so you can´t just pull out the action. In this case you have to remove some srews and pull the action out together with the keys. Others have no capstans but long wooden rods (with a felt underneath at the key side) that link the keys with the action. These rods are glued on the whippen. In that case you can easily remove the action by pulling these rods away from the keys, but bringing these rods into the keys again is a little bit tricky. That´s what I called fumbling around :-) Concerning the bridle straps: once you removed the action it´s very easy to remove a hammer with a faultless strap as a sample for the correct length. Now cut the new bridle strap in that length and glue it with TiteBond. That´s it. I never use these straps with clips. If you are lucky not the whole strap needs to be replaced but only the leather. In that case you can just glue a new leather on the old strap without pulling the action out, given that only a few leathers need to be replaced. I would never do such a repair in the home of the customer, I always take the action to the workshop. I am shure that an old Blüthner with broken bridle straps needs much more work: reshaping hammers, tighten all screws, regulation and so on. Just the standard programm. Adjusting damper timing is of course different to underdamper actions. Loose the srews of the birdcage wires and turn the wires upwards until there is enough space between the whippen and the underneath felt of that wire. An Austrian collegue just completely rebuilt an overdamper. It is an old Luner from 1898 and those Luners were never known for quality, rather some kind of cheapos. But he did it because of the beautyful case and that certain degree of doggendness and generosity of the customer. You can see and listen the result here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFrnct_QImM Hope that helps. Gregor Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:07:37 -0700 From: toddpianoworks at att.net To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Replacing Bridle Straps on a Birdcage Thank you Bruce. I will go with removing the action. Do all overdampers have less than 88 keys like the Bluthner? TODD PIANO WORKS Matthew Todd, Piano Technician (979) 248-9578 http://www.toddpianoworks.com --- On Fri, 7/24/09, Bruce Browning - The Piano Tuner <justpianos at our.net.au> wrote: From: Bruce Browning - The Piano Tuner <justpianos at our.net.au> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Replacing Bridle Straps on a Birdcage To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Friday, July 24, 2009, 1:21 AM Matthew, I would recommend you carefully try to remove the action, just to be fully aware of how it operates, and for future reference. Once the action is removed from the piano, and stood on a bench/table, you can swing all hammers forward, over centre, to access the bridle tape connection to the catcher shank. Now that you have access the choice of clip-on or glued tapes can be made, but a more professional job would be accurately measured, glued-on bridle tapes. Take your time, do good work and learn as you go. Good luck. Bruce Browning The Piano Tuner. > However, since I > am dealing with a birdcage, would the spring clip straps be an option in > this situation? I just didn't feel like trying to remove a birdcage > action for the first time in front of a customer. > _________________________________________________________________ Drag n’ drop—Get easy photo sharing with Windows Live™ Photos. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/products/photos.aspx -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090724/d14dc8fe/attachment-0001.htm>
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