[pianotech] Fwd: Heintzman grand

[Ron Nossaman]

On 3/20/2013 9:29 AM, John Ross wrote:
>
> Is this just cosmetic, or as I suspect the reason for the piano being
> off so much pitch wise.
> What is the fix recommended.

I rebuilt a Kimball some time back, with similar problems. The case 
veneer looked like a mahogany burl to me. She wanted it rebuilt, and 
didn't care about the finish, so that meant no screw head cover patches 
showing outside. I bought some plastic resin glue, because the color was 
pretty close to that of the veneer, and I could use it as a sort of hard 
cure filler as well as a glue. I don't typically use it for anything, 
but it's pretty good stuff if you've never tried it. After tear down, I 
glued the front separations, clamped and put about 30 drywall screws (a 
lot anyway) through the inside rim and into the outside, just short of 
going through. There were separations between inner and outer rims in a 
lot of places underneath, so I flipped it over, glued, clamped, and 
added another three pounds of screws around the inside. I spent at least 
a couple of days just putting the case back together and making the 
beams and legs solid again. I even added bracing, and ended up with 
something I thought was quite sturdy. The brown glue disguised the 
veneer damage better than I'd hoped, for a hack job, and the rebuild 
went well. I tuned it without incident for a couple of years after that 
until I was down the day of the next appointment with a long term sinus 
curse, and she was put out and got someone else rather than reschedule.

I didn't have a digital camera at the time, so no photos.

Bottom line, I don't think I'd have done it without the rebuild.
Ron N