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Tom Tuner

Well I' pleased (and relieved) that someone will come to take care of this in person. Given the notoriously poor communications between pianists and technicians it is hard to get together on what a noise sounds like when one is attempting to describe it. There must be a cause since the pianodid not ...

Tom Tuner

I can't give you my technical class on piano noises, that requires a chalkboard and a rigged piano for demonstration purposes. But, since you are getting no relief, let us consider some diagnostics you can apply yourself. With the dampers at rest, strum the strings to be sure that the dampers are in...

Tom Tuner

Published descriptions rarely list string gauge or micrometer measurement. I have one for Broadwoods, an approx. 1825, 7 ft. 4 in. grand.

Tom Tuner[/i]

Tom Tuner

Well don't give up yet. If you can pin it down to one specific string by successively muting them out one at a time (with your finger-tip if nothing else comes to hand), it may help a technician in identifying the cause. If it is just the one string, push it around a bit; retune that one. Some of yo...

Tom Tuner

Go to: www.puretone-wire.com/ for info on stainless-steel wire.

Tom

Tom Tuner

My favorite was my predecessor in tuning, at the home of the director of a government installation, who required everyone to leave the house before he would begin. I was able to make a fair guess what he had been up to or not up to in their absence.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Fiddlesticks! There are only noises for which a cause has not yet been found. About 30 years' worth of experience is a help in rooting out some of them. A reasonably systematic approach, rather than thrashing about at random, is also useful. The C7 is one of Yamaha's better efforts, but even so is n...

Tom Tuner

I'm awaiting a reply on the suitable wire. Broadwood grands of that age are surely not so scarce that someone cannot find a less altered on of the same size and measure the strings for you. Have other restorers kept no records of their work which they might share? I am myself somewhat skeptical of t...

Tom Tuner

Piano Guy may well be right, if there is a capo the string may have worn a groove in it, and that may cause the noise. The capo tasto or d'astro is immediately behind the wrest-pins, looking toward the tail of the piano. Or, there may be a crack in the bridge and the bridge pin is leaning over. Agra...

Tom Tuner

It might be an agraffe noise, or, less likely, from the bridge pin. If the string shifted even slightly the noise would go away. This might account for the "leaking" damper. Are you quite sure it is not a harmonic noise ("sympathetic vibration")? These can be very deceptive as to...

Tom Tuner

I believe there are some data on stringing for Broadwoods in Harding. A real expert of my aquaintance has been using low density wire for restringing antique pianos for about 25 years. This for tonal reasons as well as to keep down the total tension. I could ask him about a supplier. Recently stainl...

Tom Tuner

You could very likely find out from Rosamund Harding's book. The translator's appendices to Helmholz have material on the history of pitch. I would be a bit cautious about using modern piano wire of the same gauge since it is likely to be of higher density and require increased tension to come up to...

Tom Tuner

I believe gravity is inconsequential as a restoring force in strings, but you might have trouble returning the keys to rest.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

I have a very dim recollection that you might find a date cast in the tail of the plate. I don't recall these being helpful in dating the piano, however, as the casting may have been in stock for some time before being installed.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

? I didn't do anytthing special, just summoned up Google and typed the title on the search line. Lots of books out of copyright on there. Tom Tuner P.S. Let me know if it doesn't work I may be able to e-mail it as a compressed file which is not very large. Reading it on line is a bit more convenient...

Tom Tuner

I used to referr to churches as "the elephant's graveyard for pianos," it's where old pianos go to die. "Let's get rid of this old klunker. We can give it to the church!"

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

You're being pedantic? I thought that was my role. My last words on the topic: I will stick with Loud Bros. 1824 grand as the first piano with at least 88 notesThis was a dead-end as far as piano history or development goes. If you down-load (free) Spillane's book, History of the American Pianofort...

Tom Tuner

The 1/2 octave jumps were from Broadwood's lists of models and a couple other sources. Most of pianos I've seen have been 61, 73, 85, or 88-note, except for some 64-note AEolian spinets. A reason overdampers never made it here was that until late in the 1800's nearly all upright actions were importe...

Tom Tuner

Well, that's very interesting. My encounters with British pianos have been almost entirely limited to over-damper uprights so elderly that some couldn't even muster seven octaves. I note that Nalder (1927) implies 88 notes to be standard and illustrates it as such. The German and Austrian pianos tha...

Tom Tuner

Roseamund Harding cites an 1845 patent by Pape showing an 8 1/2-octave keyboard with no indication that it was actually built. Both Arthur Loesser and edwin M. Good in Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos. contend that Pape did buid an 8-octave piano in 1844 which was played until 1849 and not ...

Tom Tuner

Is that Behning & Son or Behning Piano Co.? If the former the serial number would put it about 1897-98. Does it really look that old? If the latter, it may have been made in the 1930's. I have run into quite a few really old Behning & Son pianos which have been quite decent given their age. ...

Tom Tuner

Triangle keys (and square keys as well) haven't changed much in 150 years. The interior mechanism is slightly different but they still work the same way and are of essentially the same dimensions. Lacking a proper key, a very small screwdriver can be used to unlock it. Keys should be readily availab...

Tom Tuner

Possibly along the lines of what would be called in Germany a Stosszungenmechanik, a "pushing action".

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

This would appear to be made in 1919. This was probably after Vose & Sons became part of the American Piano Co. and no longer made pianos in their original Boston factory.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

That sounds typical of a piano case from about the turn of the previous century. The "carved" panels in the upper front panel are most likely either pressed from metal dies, or if in fairly high relief may be an applique.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

A resident of Britain has remarked, on another forum, that he can find no one capable of restoring his Paris Erard and will have to send it to the Continent. I thought this was nonsense. Any comments on the availability of competent experts on vintage and antique pianos of French persuasion? Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

If it says, "Cabinet Grand" you can be sure it was made before 1910 and probably not much after 1900. If it has a 5 digit serial number begining with 2, then it would be from about 1890. An experienced technician can often date a piano within 5 or 10 years from the case style.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Acrosonic serial numbers are a separate series from Baldwin. Your piano was parbably made 1959.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

I've mostly used the feather to simulate rosewood on melodeon legs and pedal lyres. These were not artistic masterpieces to start with, so my efforts did not look too badly by comparison.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

With a rubber graining comb and a goose feather you can learn to do your own fake graining with some practice. It's not that hard.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Oops! The control codes for text enhancement seem to have gotten a bit out of hand. Haven't done that since the days of the Commodore C=64. I guess that is why there is a preview option. Yes, Bill, the note on the Loud Bros. grand was from Dolge, P & TM, Vol. 1. No citation, Alfred probably knew...

Tom Tuner

In Stringed Keyboard Instruments Franz Josef Hirt gives this table: 1700 till approximately 1765 - 5 octaves 1765 " " 1794 - 5 octaves and a 4th 1794 " " 1804 - 6 octaves 1804 " " 1824 - 6 octaves and a 4th 1824 " " 1880 - 7 octaves 1880 " " present ...

Tom Tuner

You can check in David Wainwright's book,Broadwood by request. to see how and when they expanded the keyboard. Nothing before 1800 ran to more than six octaves at most.
In this hemisphere any piano made after 1885 would have 88 keys. However, let me do a bit of further checking on this.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Gill,

Once again, thanks for the tip! I had supposed this was one of his "juvenals" featuring Granny Weatherwax. Incidentally, I have Wotzernames Ogg's Cookbook, but I am having trouble obtaining the ingredients for the recepies.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

It is a 'cabinet piano' which might date from as early as 1816, but more likely from 1830-50's. The original silk cloth was probably not brown, usually old rose or a medium green color. You might find traces of the original still stuck to the inside. Otherwise it certainly appears to be in excellent...

Tom Tuner

I see that your 'celeste' rail would be a 'muffler' rail rather than a 'mandolin' or 'honky-tonk'. I'm still looking for the set of articles on making and intalling these.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Thanks for the tip, but it happens that I've read all the 'Diskworld' volumes I can find. The latest was one of the best.
Was there only one edition of David Wainwright's
Broadwood? Amazon.com lists a copy for about US$400 (or more)

Tom Tuner.

Tom Tuner

Gill, I quite enjoyed The Wimbledon Poisoner. Very Kingsly Amis-ish (which rates highly with me). Two sentences near the end tickled me, "...the level of his incompetence had reached the stage where it was a definate asset. If he went on like this he was going to end up President of the United ...

Tom Tuner

I used to have some info on installing "mandolin rails" ( which I take to be the same as your celeste rail). Let me see what I can find.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

It sounds as though you got an overdose of Kimball and Whitney spinets, of which I have suffered my way through several thousand. They are tiresome to tune and putting H-B actions in them did not improve them (from what they were otherwise). Betsy Ross is an icon of American mythology, and her spine...

Tom Tuner

They were designed to fit contemporary furniture design and interior decor, and because there was no market for full-sized upright pianos. Lost-motion on most spinets can be more easily regulated than on many uprights, e.g key rockers. "Full-blow Action" as distinguished from a compact con...

Tom Tuner

Thank you Gill. I shall look for that one.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Pierce isn't even reliable on American serial numbers. Take what you read there with a pound of salt.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Actually I don't mind working on birdcage pianos providing they are structurally competent. Many of those imported here are...shall we say, less than robust. The last one I worked on required making a steel hitch-pin panel for the bass strings before it was tunable. The 'warped minds' were Haddorf a...

Tom Tuner

Beating the tempo with a concrete left hand will break bass strings all over the place regardless of the maker. Gospel music pianists are able to do this regardless of age or gender.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

This is a bit harsh on spinets in general, and possibly this one in particular. It may well be that some drop-lifters are unhitched from the keys. Actually broken keys are not very common. Depending upon the action it might be disloged butt-springs. I do not find most spinets to be a bit more troubl...

Tom Tuner

If it is Decker & Son it is likely to be old, as in 1910 or earlier. Decker Brothers might be slightly newer, but still pre-1930. In either case, of negligible value.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Well, you have to keep in mind that I was well at home in woodworking and machine shop before I ever started on player pianos and such, so making my own tools, duplicating parts, making replacement keys and the like was not exactly a big deal. I was glad to get shed of the Pinto, however, the Escort...

Tom Tuner

I believe that it is mostly referring to organs that that format is used. Until about 20 years ago pianos always started A1 A#2,..., then someone started numberering by octaves: A0, A#0, B0, C1, etc. , very confusing.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

For what it's worth, my proceedure was to machine a molding of the desired profile from a length of maple, then slice sections of that to the required width. Since there are no flange screws, and no place to put any, I had to put a wedge in the part that is inserted in the slot in the action rail in...

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