[CAUT] Wurlitzer Iron Pinblock - Anyone ever restring one of these things?

[Norman Cantrell]

Kendall
 
I had a Wurlitzer player grand a few years back with no pinblock.  The pins were held in place by wedges that were driven up into a split in the pin itself.  If one got a little loose a small tap on the wedge would tighten it up.  It appears the threaded screw from the back accomplishes the same thing.  
 
I only replaced the bass strings in this particular piano.  I this case I took an approach similar to what was described in earlier posts regarding re-stringing pianos while retaining original tuning pins and block.  The trick is to make coils on some form of tuning pin that are then transfered to the existing pins that remain in the block.  If you want to clean things up for appearance sake I would suggest the Travis tuning pin cleaning system.  It has been years since I looked for it in the Schaff catalogue but if they no longer supply it there may be some old timers around that have some of the rubber tips and polishing compound lying around.  If I recall I used a dremel tool with the wire wheel attachment to clean up the tuning pins before stringing which worked pretty well also.  
 
If you are planning on painting the plate I would clean the pins, prep the plate, then cover the pins with heat shrink tubing to keep the gold off the pins.  (unless of course you want that 50's reconditioned with gold on the strings look).  The tuning pins hold remarkably well with new strings in place.
 
Norman Cantrell

--- On Thu, 9/11/08, Kendall Ross Bean <kenbean at pacbell.net> wrote:

From: Kendall Ross Bean <kenbean at pacbell.net>
Subject: [CAUT] Wurlitzer Iron Pinblock - Anyone ever restring one of these things?
To: "'College and University Technicians'" <caut at ptg.org>
Date: Thursday, September 11, 2008, 9:49 PM



I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience restringing one of these, or has any tips, advice or suggestions. (Yes, I have one I am attempting to restring....)
 
The subject is a 7' Wurlitzer grand from the 1920's. It has the unique tuning pins that have conical bottoms that are wedged by screws against the cast iron plate web. 
 
(See attached photo:)  
 

 
(The picture is of the upright configuration. Turn it 90 degrees clockwise and you will have the grand I am working on.) 
 
The plate web is very thick (15/16"), and substitutes for the usually pinblock.
 
Since the tuning pins are inserted into the web/block from the underside, and are then wedged in place by the screw, I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas how these might have been strung at the factory, or how one might go about restringing one, since you can't simply wind the coil on the pin in the normal way and then just stick it in the block.
 
Any ideas, advice, or experience you could share would be most appreciated. Or if anyone can point me to anything in the archives....
 
(The pins and block are still in excellent condition, and the design seems to work quite well. The screw behind the tuning pin will give a fairly wide latitude of pin torques, based on how much the screw is tightened. There is some kind of graphite grease or lubricant on the pin where it contacts the iron plate. The pins seem to be nickel plated. I think this design might have been intended originally as a tropicalizing measure.)
 
It's actually quite a nice piano. -Sort of a loose copy of a Steinway model B. So I thought it would be worth restoring. (Except the plate, of course, is a lot heavier, -on the front end.)
 
I have also run into other Wurlitzer grands of the period with a similar tuning pin setup. Also very nice pianos. Evidentally back in the day they made some serious grands. (Or somebody made them for Wurlitzer. The action on this grand has Apollo written on it in pencil....)
 
Please let me know if anyone has had experience (good, bad, or indifferent) with one of these. 
 
Thanks,
 
Kendall Ross Bean
 

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