[pianotech] Waltham, was Pic Puzzler

[Mike Spalding]

David,

Pretty darn tall, I have a recollection of the top being at about eye 
level. And yes, the original hammer line was straight across like that. 
You can see they ran the v-bar upwards in order to move the strike point 
without having to graduate the shank lengths. What else was done besides 
new hammers and shanks? This was Grampa's piano, bought new for his new 
bride, and lately stored in the enclosed but unheated farmhouse porch. 
Here's the proposal they accepted:

__

1.Structural repairs, consisting of repair and reinforcing of the joints 
at the base of the back posts, repair of any cracked wood or stripped 
screws, and installation of new rubber-wheeled casters.

2.Action Rebuild, consisting of complete disassembly, cleaning and 
lubricating, reassembly with new hammers, new under-key felts, new key 
bushings, new damper felts, and replacing or reconditioning other action 
felt/leather as required.Voice and regulate.

3.White keytop replacement with new one-piece plastic tops and fronts.

4.Pedal and trapwork reconditioning, consisting of cleaning, 
lubrication, and re-bushing as required.

5.Soundboard repair and refinishing, consisting of re-attachment of all 
separated ribs, and epoxy repair of soundboard cracks.

6.Bridge repair consisting of removing old bridge pins, re-surfacing 
bridge top and renotching, installing new bridge pins with epoxy to fill 
and stabilise any bridge cracks, and refinishing bridge top in graphite 
DAG, sides and notches in polyurethane varnish.The new bridge pins and 
epoxy fill are essential to obtaining a clear and strong tone.

7.Plate reconditioning consisting of resurfacing string terminations at 
v-bar, wash and wax original gold lacquer, and installing new 
under-string felt.Like the bridge pins and epoxy, resurfacing the v-bar 
is essential to obtaining a clear and strong tone.

8.Rout out pockets in the original pinblock and inset new pinblock material.

9.Re-string with all new strings and tuning pins.

10.Includes one in-home tuning within 3 months of delivery of finished 
piano within the Hubertus WI area.


Mike

On 11/11/2011 9:29 PM, David Skolnik wrote:
>
> Mike -
> How tall is that piano? Work looks excellent. One question. Was that 
> the original hammer line in the tenor? I expected to see the first few 
> hammers (#29,30, 31, etc.) with a graduated strike point starting 
> closer to the nut (top termination) than the remainder of the treble, 
> although, in the picture at least, the shanks look like they couldn't 
> be any longer. An optical delusion perhaps. What else was done with 
> this piano? Question is tangentially relevant to a tangential 
> discussion on the /other /pianotech (egroups at ptg.org) (Price Shoppers) 
> regarding the kind of work one would choose to do with uprights.
>
> In any case, it was more likely my mmry than sperience.
> David Skolnik
>