Stieff piano "chop chop chop"

[Andy&Chris Taylor]

Hi all.
Thanks for all who posted about me converting the Stieff piano. I really
appreciate all the comments too, positive and negative. I get my pianotech
in digest form, it is less confusing, and that is why I dont respond
privately to every letter.

I also found out that this brand of piano is very respected. But I do wonder
about market value, since I picked this piano up for a song(I even played
the song for them on a new Kawaii grand) from a piano dealer. I also got a
nice and heavy Vose and sons with an unusual keybed from the same place for
$50 I almost bought a chickering upright, but Chrissy said "that's enough
for now"<grin>

 I don't doubt that either of these pianos are desirable, But uprights are
VERY hard to sell here for some reason. Players go out the door as soon as I
play the first roll it seems!

I would like to explain something about myself to the group. I do not "chop
up" or swap parts on pianos for the fun of it. I have limited funds to spend
on these projects. More times than not, I end up with complete basket case
pianos (most of the Fosters), free for the hauling,
 that the rebuilders either pronounce "dead" or not worth the effort to
revive. It takes me long hard hours of labor and love before I can even play
one note!

I get a kick out of rebuilding what is considered absolute junk, and making
a beautiful looking and sounding piano that works as good as the day it was
built.

Consider for a moment, why I drag a bunch of old Foster pianos home.(besides
being crazy) This actually happened: One Foster has a big hole in the
soundboard, and a cracked plate(a forklift driver error) The other Foster
had been in the middle of a bad bar fight and the case and piano action
looked like it had been on the front line in World war 2! I can still see
the owners of these wrecks shaking their heads in disbelief knowing that
some nut was willing to drive from Missouri and haul what was left away!

See, I learned a long time ago the only way to become a experienced piano
person was to get in deep in the cheaper pianos and rebuild them. I would
not learn much by just tuning and regulating, or picking pianos that wasn't
much of a challenge, I had to put myself in a situation that required me to
think like the factory

Neither piano was useable by itself. and would have met certain "death" If I
hadn't went after them. Both had major damage. I would never part out a
rebuildable piano, I happen to have three Fosters that I was able to rebuild
and they sit here in the parlor, one with a pianomation. neither of these
units have parts  from other pianos, they were nice enough to be
rebuildable.

But back to the two destroyed pianos. We carefully took those two pianos
apart right down the the frames. there were parts everywhere. basically, I
had a Nice case with a ruined back, and a ruined case and piano action with
a rebuildable back of the same brand, same scale. one was a player and the
one I 'stole" the back from was a regular upright.

Now I had to force myself to think like the factory and construct a new
piano from what was useable. Chris and I learned much from the experience,
The importance of the striking point, how the plate was bedded down, and how
to set the correct keybed position, and how to prep and align a action
/dampers to the strings.

What we ended up with (after a years spare time) was a New looking Foster
player piano that looked factory perfect, nothing 'rigged" anywhere. I
think I am more proud of that piano than any we have. people who see it and
play it, does not believe the story behind the piano, until they see the
destroyed parts I have kept.

When we were building this piano, folks called me a "butcher" and even worse
at times. I guess that building one piano from two wrecks is just unheard of
in this trade, that you can and should revive every unit, and somehow it is
a 'sin" to swap parts. people who rebuild old cars do the same thing, and
nobody is laughing.

I can also understand why some in the group thinks that I am going to 'chop
up' the stieff
Most people just dont believe that you can convert a piano without ruining
it, and that is exactly what usually happens every time such a conversion is
attempted, people dont think ahead in such a project, or they just stick the
pneumatic junk in without planning how the case is going to look.

my approach to the Stieff is simply this, "dont change anything that can't
be changed back" this feature can be designed  right in if just a little
planning is used!

here is our goal of the Stieff, to construct a complete player piano with a
QUALITY piano, that looks factory, works like it should, doesn't looked
'rigged or butchered" inside or out.

I can see the looks on the faces of many a experienced piano person here
thinking that I have totally lost my mind. Will I make money on this?
probably not! but, It will expand my experience, and that is what I am
after.

Andy

" a harp is a nude piano"<g>