<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16544" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV>  Small piano, lighter scaling, thinned sound board areas, epoxy impedance enhancement .  Seems like a great recipe for softer hammers without lacquer. It's always satisfying when these things turn out well for the client.........& the rebuilder.</DIV> <DIV>  Dale</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Earlier this year my shop did just such a project. And early Wurlitzer grand, about 5' in length. (Don't ask how we came by such a piano--it's too sad a story to repeat!) </FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>We did pretty much as Dean described. We epoxied the soundboard (as per my Journal articles). We moved the bass bridge forward as far as it would go without serious plate grinding and shortened the cantilever appropriately. We did not float the soundboard but we did thin out the area between the bass bridge mounting foot and the inner rim. I rescaled the whole piano; it's now nicely in the low-tension range. This included dropping the tensions through the bass quite a bit; in this piano the wraps (which I think were original, but couldn't tell for sure) were quite large. As were the core diameters; they are now some thinner. The bass strings are by Arledge (though the scaling is mine) and they do use European loops. And, of course, it got all of the usual stuff like a new pinblock (standard, multi-lam), cleaned and reamed agraffes, dressed V-bar, etc. The hammers are Ronsen/Bacon and, no, they did not require any lacquer to make the piano sing. </FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>And sing it does! No, it's not a big piano but the upper bass, tenor and treble sections don't seem to know that. The piano is located in a small music room about the size of a large bedroom along with several other musical instruments. The only voicing I've done so far has been to sand the hammers a bit through the upper tenor and treble (about 15 minutes worth) and, after the piano was delivered, to needle down the tenor a bit. The power/sustain balance is excellent as are the timbrel dynamics. </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=140565816-13102007></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=140565816-13102007> </SPAN>Our job cost on the project was around $7,500 (including some finish work) and the buyer is delighted. He had been on the verge of buying a somewhat more expensive new piano until he played the Wurlitzer. We sold him the piano for somewhat more than the street price of the various Chinese/Indonesian piano and (sadly, after the fact) though we did make a profit on the deal we later learned he'd have happily paid considerably more for the piano than he did! He was simply unable to find that kind of sound in a new piano.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=140565816-13102007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Del</FONT></SPAN></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's new at <A title="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" href="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" target="_blank">AOL.com</A> and <A title="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" href="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" target="_blank">Make AOL Your Homepage</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>