Mike, My answer is far from authoritative, but I'll give it my best shot. This piano would have come from the period from when American Aeolian went through its last death throes (and expected disinterest on the part of workers and QC dept), and when a certain number of strung backs and other components were put into storage containers, and (finally) the eventual but brief revival of M&H at the Sohmer plant which had earlier been relocated to the former Pratt-Read piano action parts company in CT. So some of the M&H pianos coming out of CT were from partially assembled E. Rochester components. Plus, the "new" bellymen through final voicers may or may not have been optimally prepared for their work. So that's a start on why the piano may not be as fine as the owners expected! I hope your improvements get it back in the zone. Patrick Draine On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 6:25 PM, Michael Magness <IFixPianos at yahoo.com>wrote: > I was initially called to tune this piano last summer, it seemed to be a > fairly good quality piano that had been played and hadn't had much done to > it except tuning, lost motion and perhaps some regulation as needed. The > owners tell me they acquired it from Jordan Kitt music when the husband, the > primary pianist, worked for them in sales about 1985, he now drives city > bus. The primary problem the owners have noticed virtually since it was new, > is the breaking of strings in the upper range, above F6 mostly #13 and 131/2 > wire while he is playing. One tech went so far as to remove the pressure bar > and deburr it with emery cloth. The strings continue to break, I have > replaced 2, one last summer and one a few weeks ago when I tuned it. The > strings break at the pressure or V-bar on the plate, not at the pin, > requiring replacement. > My hunch is the hammers, they are very hard and the tone is very bright, I > believe the hard hammers played with a heavy touch in the upper treble is > the cause. However I know it could be bad wire, poor scaling even a poor > design. > > My question is does anyone know anything about these pianos or have any > experience with them? This is the only one I have ever seen, I don't know > for sure, who manufactured it, the new atlas is a little vague. Having only > seen one I don't know if this is common to this model or if this particular > piano has a problem, is it bad wire? Bad scaling? Bad hammers? Someting > else??? > A combination of a couple or all of those things? > > My notes from my initial appointment were that I would suggest replacing > hammers, backchecks, recovering catchers as needed, repin hammer flanges and > bolster hammer butts as needed, rebush keys fronts and centers, strengthen > or replace hammer return springs and regulate. > > > All suggestions welcome. > > Thanks, > > Mike > > > -- > I intend to live forever. So far, so good. > Steven Wright > > > Michael Magness > Magness Piano Service > 608-786-4404 > www.IFixPianos.com > email mike at ifixpianos.com > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100104/bbcfca26/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC