[pianotech] Pleyel Grand Piano

[Amadeus Piano]

Hi all, 

 

I just tuned a Pleyel grand piano.  About 5'2'' to 5'5'' I forgot to
measure.  The serial number on the plate was 70669 but there was another
number on the case, inside, towards the end of the music desk slide  rails,
183208.  The plate no. makes it ca. 1870-80 from what I can find.  It's been
in the family for awhile, but the history is fuzzy.

 

It's a real beauty.  The bass strings were wound in a way I hadn't seen
before, tapering at the ends in a real pretty, conical way.  The piano must
have been rebuilt at some point (maybe in Europe?)-the hammers and action
are in good shape, the pins were 1/0 or 2/0 (or foreign?), the strings were
in good condition, and the felt was in good condition as well-however, many
of the tuning pins (about half at least) were unacceptably loose.  Though it
hadn't been serviced in 3 or so years per the customer (my guess is more
like 5 yrs), the biggest problem was the unisons (because of the loose
pins).  The piano was about 20 cents flat, but the unisons were all over the
place.

 

I did a PR and tuned it and found the tone *really* nice.  The high treble
was esp. tight and crisp (and consequently it was easy to tune the unisons
all the way to C8-I've never had such an easy time hearing the vibrations in
the high treble-almost no muddiness).  All the wire strings were tied
off-not a single shared string/ loop.

 

What are your recommendations for the pins?  I don't think the piano is very
stable in its current state.  

With a piano of this quality, I don't really like the idea of using CA glue,
but what do you think?  The strings are still ok, so I don't need to
restring, but could I, should I recommend repining with the next size up and
reuse the existing strings?  The coils are real low too-not much room to tap
in if that was an option.

 

I'd also like to get any thoughts on the manufacturer.  I'm guessing this
family purchased the piano in Europe many years ago, already rebuilt.  (The
owner didn't recall the strings ever being replaced or any major work for
that matter-but I don't believe they can be any older than 20 or so years; I
can't even believe they're that old-no rust at all, the bass strings in real
good shape, the tone phenomenal, and the hammers are nice and clean and
unworn-it's a bit of a mystery).

 

Thanks, Gary H.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091125/2dc778ee/attachment.htm>