<div>On 10/13/07, Dean May <<a href="mailto:deanmay@pianorebuilders.com">deanmay@pianorebuilders.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div lang="EN-US" vlink="purple" link="blue"> <div> You should tell her that you can make it better, but you can't make it sound like a 9 foot.   Del Fandrich talks about improving the sound on small grands with a couple of tricks, neither for the faint hearted. First you rescale the bass, positioning the bass bridge as far forward as the plate will allow. You are trying to eliminate the apron and increase the backscale length. Del has empirically proven that aprons absorb all the lower frequencies of the strings leaving nothing to go into the soundboard. When ordering the strings specify the very short Jolly Loop. Or better yet, replace the hitch pins with vertical pins that have a little grove cut around the top. The groove allows the string to pivot more freely up and down as the string oscillates.  Make sure you use high quality bass strings- I recommend Arledge.   The second thing you can do is "float" the soundboard. This involves making a cut through the soundboard in the tail area and reinforcing the cut edge. Alternatively, you can router a groove around the perimeter of the soundboard in that area. Search the archives for more info here.   I would recommend you hire Del as a consultant if you want to pursue either avenue: <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:fandrich@pianobuilders.com" target="_blank"> fandrich@pianobuilders.com</a>     <div> Dean Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 Terre Haute IN  47802 </div> <div> <div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"> <hr align="center" width="100%" size="2"> </div> From: <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org" target="_blank"> pianotech-bounces@ptg.org</a> [mailto:<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org" target="_blank">pianotech-bounces@ptg.org</a>] On Behalf Of Brian Doepke Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 8:53 PM To: 'Pianotech List' Subject: 1920's Wurli Grand</div>   <div> I have a client who, several years ago, bought a 1920's Wurli Grand off of e-bay.  I have been working on it regularly, tuning every 6 months so it is now up to A440. I have also reshaped the hammers.  There are a couple slight cracks in the soundboard.  The keys are "sloppy" compared to status of what they should be.  I am sure that many of you have run into a similar instrument.   The client now wants to talk about what can be done to bring back the "big, rich sound" of a grand.  She wants to discuss string replacement as a way of getting her "grand sound".   Is this even worthwhile?  I am afraid of doing the restringing only to have the sound fall short of what the client wants.   Should I consider the saying "Even if you put a dress and make-up on a pig…it's still a pig."?   Brian P. Doepke, (dep-kee) R.P.T. (Registered Piano Technician) AAA Piano Works, Inc. Piano Tuning-Repair-Purchase Consults 260.417.1298 260.432.2043     <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.aaapianoworks.com/" target="_blank"> www.aaapianoworks.com</a> Hi Brian,</div></div></div></blockquote> <div>I have taken a middle of the road approach with a couple of small Kimballs that came my way with some minor success. I won't go so far as to say they became the famed silk purses from the sow's ear they were but I did manage to improve on what they were in a significant fashion. I don't recall if Wurli used them or not but the Kimball's had the pear shaped knuckles so I replaced the shanks & flanges along with hammer replacement using Abel liights. I rebushed keys on both and regulated them that was the extent of the work on the 5' Kimball. </div> <div>However on the 4'6" Kimball it was the customer's wish to restring it, after consulting some of the more knowledgable people in my chapter about using Arledge or someone to rescale the bass, we decided against it. The piano was just too small to benefit from a bass rescale was the common feeling so I went with Mapes copies of the originals. I used a Delignet block and bored & machined the hammers using Spurlock's methods and jigs. My customer is a guest artist at several churches in the area but did not have room in his home for a larger grand plus this piano was a gift from an old family friend so he had no initial investment in it. </div> <div> </div> <div>He is delighted with the tonal improvement, the responsiveness and the fact that it plays and sounds like a more significant instrument than it is.</div> <div> </div> <div>My advice to you would be to advise your customer that her piano wasn't a "great" piano from the getgo and probably never had a big rich grand piano sound. That you can probably improve the sound quite a bit over what it currently is but you will not promise a big rich sound, at best only a larger richer sound than it currently has. If that is truly what she must have perhaps a slightly larger better piano would be the answer. I'm guessing you could find something more suitable either rebuilt or rebuildable.  </div> <div>  Mike -- Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.-- Albert Einstein Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 <a href="http://www.IFixPianos.com">www.IFixPianos.com</a> email <a href="mailto:mike@ifixpianos.com">mike@ifixpianos.com</a> </div></div>