[Fwd: Piano Restoration?]

[Susan Kline]

Hi, Tom

I take it we are looking at a Viennese grand? I worked on a few many years
ago, which a lady with a clock shop used to import. I guess they took up
room in her container loads and looked pretty. 

I remember one where the little blocks on wires which run the dampers were
all bent, and I removed the action to get a good look. Boy, what a mistake!
They were bent because the case had warped enough that the action cavity
was now too shallow to allow the action to pass. It was very hard to get
out, and a true _nightmare_ to get back in, and a lot more of the wires got
bent. But by then I understood the problem better, and could bend them
straight by reaching through the strings. In spite of watching me sweat and
struggle, and in spite of all my warnings about the warped case, the lady
who had hired me to evaluate the piano went ahead and bought it. 

I remember having trouble stabilizing the tunings. Aside from the extreme
age and fairly light construction, the back lengths were very long and it
took a lot of passes to get the pitch up. I seldom brought them all the way
to modern pitch. I remember using glove leather to repair vellum hinges,
and carefully putting the extra turn around the hitch pin (all strings were
looped) to match the others when replacing a broken string. 

Considering everything, they were not that hard to work on. I was
improvising, but they were fairly straightforward. It was a surprise the
first time I saw the backward hanging hammers, though. For some reason the
buckskin covering them lasted through everything and never wore through.

I imagine Steven Birkett would be the one to talk to about this piano once
you've seen it, Tom.

Best wishes,

Susan

--------------------------------------------------------------


At 06:53 PM 8/22/98 -0700, you wrote:
>List,
>
>I received the attached post recently. I have not seen the piano nor
>relish the idea of rebuilding such an animal but would like to help him
>out. Any ideas?
>
>If it makes any difference, it says "Belehradek in Wien" on the fall
>board and "Forte - Piano - Fabrik von Franz Belehradek" on the
>soundboard and is serial #964.
>
>Tom
>-- 
>Thomas A. Cole RPT
>Santa Cruz, CA

>Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 20:21:00 -0700
>From: Aleksandr Milewski <n6mod@amt.org>
>
>Mr. Cole,
>    I located your email address from the Piano Technician's Guild web
>page.
>    I have an approximately 100yr-old Belebradek baby grand that has
>suffered some water damage from being stored in a basement for a few
>years. I am interested in seeing the piano restored, but I don't know
>where to begin.
>    Do you do restoration work, or can you suggest someone in the area
>who does? I am located in Ben Lomond.
>
>    Thank you for your time,
>    Aleksandr Milewski
>    n6mod@amt.org
>    408 486 5216 days
>
>
>
Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com