Broadwood Dating

[Farrell]

No, No, No Ed! I just went to look at the piano as it is for sale. I was
simply trying to figure out how old it is. I read a bunch tonight from other
sources I have and am quite sure it is the 1870s vintage. She took the piano
to the local Baldwin dealer for an appraisal and they reportedly said it was
from the 1820s.

The action looks like new. The few let-off screws I turned a tad turn real
easy. And hmmmmm, I didn't really notice the way the tuning pins went into
the metal covering the pin block - but I did notice that it had a steel
plate on top of the pin block (at least I presume it was steel and not cast
iron). I found some pictures of an 1848 Broadwood, and it had the
for-and-aft struts screwed directly into the open-faced pinblock. My piano
is 85 note. I found another picture of an 1887 Broadwood that had the same
exact-appearing stuts mine had. Also, I read that Broadwood first introduced
a steel hitch pin plate in 1927. I say no way the piano I looked at today is
1925 - it most certainly is early 1870s. Agree? Does such a piano have much
special value????

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: <A440A@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: Broadwood Dating


>
> In a message dated 9/8/0 11:47:00 PM, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:
>
> <<  The piano is straight strung, but
>
> has a full sectional plate. One section is the piece with all the hitch
>
> pins, one is covering the pinblock and has all the agraffes (yes, all
>
> strings run though an agraffe), and these two are connected with bolt-on
>
> struts and other steel whathaveyous. They didn't have that much metal in a
>
> piano in 1825 - did they? I think this piano must be early 1870s. It has a
>
> single escapement action. Anyone with enough experience here to comment?
The
>
> piano in many ways is real nice.
>
>
> Greetings,
>     Be careful if you disassemble the plate.  Reassembly requires a
certain
> chronology, as the struts are fitted into holes in the hitch plate and the
> wedge anchors that screw in behind them cannot be pounded too hard.  The
nose
> bolts will be pinned to the struts, and the struts will break easily if
you
> force them off.
>    The let-off buttons are the only adjustment.  You may need to heat the
> screws to turn them.  There must be lost motion, so you have to set the
> hammer line and back rail felt together. Lotta other stuff, how far you
going
> into this thing?  And do the tuning pins have screw threads on them, which
go
> into the metal threads in the plate before the reach the threaded pinblock
> holes?
> Guy Nichols and I both went through one like this earlier this year,  he
will
> have more details.
>   You will love working with these dampers, they screw in to the posts.
> Regards,
> Ed Foote
>
>