witton and witton -update !

[tobycrisp]

Once again Barrie, thankyou for your help. I now have a serial no. 30058. I have also been cleaning, but only with a moist cloth and only on top of the keys. Yes, the rest i have been hoovering , but only dirt easily sucked up ! I will be waiting for the tuner to turn up tomorrow to tell me what is what. The piano is an oversprung one and i wait with baited breath to hear hopefully good news that it will tune up ok. I do wonder though what may have to be done with the hammers/pads on hammers etc, they are very dirty.At least the experience with this is enlightening and makes me want to give up my day job and become a piano cleaner !! Ha Ha It has been great fun, and i know my daughter is asking every day when she can play the piano ( fingers crossed )

[Barrie Heaton]

So what did the tuner say?

Barrie,

[tobycrisp]

The tuner has managed to tune to a certain extent although not to A440. There is a small split on the upper left section of the board.I will be doing some menial repairs to the hammer pads/cords that have rotted through and so on. Hopefully this will be satisfactory for my daughter to play. She has already been having great fun with it and doesn't worry about the slightly uneven keys, etc. In fact, i know , being a musician myself i am already comtiplating the prospect of having to get a new one eventually !!!
By the way i got excellent help from Hannah and Sons in wimbledon when i popped in last week. They were very helpful and even offered to let me use their workshop from time to time. Once again thank you fo rall replies received

[Barrie Heaton]

Levelling keys is not difficult you just need some paper punching you can make them out of news paper – take a general level and level the keys to that you need to check the depth of touch that should be 10mm the sharps should be 12mm above the naturals and when at play should be 2mm above the naturals.

The above is assuming that the blow is around 47mm that is the distance from the hammer nose to the string also, there should be no lost motion ( that is the bit where the key is pressed and nothing happens for a millimetre or so )


Barrie,