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Tom Tuner

I can borrow a copy of vol. I for two weeks at a time, so I will set things motion to do that.

Tom Tuner

You might take a look at the Martha Novak Clinkscale book to see what museums have such pianos in their collections

Tom Tuner

The Chicago Cottage Organ Company eventually became The Cable Company. A Cable serial number would be about 1887.

Tom Tuner

In extremis it is possible to remove the legs, toe blocks and keybed, but as noted re-assembly is a bit of a task. This has to be done carefully to avoid case damage. Not a do-it-yourself job.

Tom Tuner

Yes, quite a number of reprodicing grands had six legs in three sets of two. The pairs were commonly connected by a skirt or console at the top and by a spindle or stretcher lower down,

Tom Tuner

GX may be a style number. Aeolian went on making grands and reproducers through the 1930's after sales of uprights went to nearly zero. Are there any indications that it ever had a reproducing mechanism installed? Merely having paired legs does not prove anything.

Tom Tuner

A thirty year-old spinet is not dead yet, unless it was d.o.a. Changing the plain-wire strings will not improve anything except your stringing expertise, unless they are terminally rusty.

Tom Tuner

You didn't tell us what it that you are working on (I found out from Piano World). In restoring historic or antique instruments the general rule is not to use materials that are going to seriously compromise the authenticity of the piano. Your idea of using varnish that is loaded with filler is not ...

Tom Tuner

Oxalic acid solution can be used to lift rust without distressing the wood further. One wonders what happened to cause rust to drip on the sdbd. Methanol will probably not satisfactorly remove the finish. If this is an antique the finish is doubtless shellac, which will come off with ethanol or aqua...

Tom Tuner

Stohlman does not turn up in Presto, Dolge, or any lists of piano makers, nor as a known player-piano. Look inside to see if the is any attribution on the cast-iron frame or on the underside of the lid itself. At least you have added one datum to the record; Pierce (Michael's) does not even mention ...

Tom Tuner

That's very useful to know, and it would have been even more helpful 20 years ago when I was still seeing an occasional Lindner. None have come my way since then. One wonders, however, how long replacement parts of the original material could be expected to last.

Tom Tuner

Any buzzing is unlikely to arise at the V-bar or pressure bar unless it is not exerting enough pressure. This is not something to fool around with in the hopes of making an improvement. Look elsewhere for the buzz.

Tom Tuner

Airfix were well built. No use for the stands 'tho. I can't imagine even a small grand piano being very stable on such a base. Must be fun to move.
I had no trouble making replacement key springs for the plastic keyboards, but making replacements for the plastic flanges was not fun.

Tom Tuner

Pressure bar in the U.S. also.

Tom Tuner

vernon has that right! One thing that keeps this interesting is that there is always something new and more to learn.
Besides, no two pianos are ever exactly the same.

Tom Tuner

It is your piano so you may do as you like with it. It might save you some grief to read up a bit before plunging in, just so you have some idea of what you are getting into. Each of us had to start someplace. Incidentally, do not be put off by dire warnings about string breakage. Unless the wire is...

Tom Tuner

There are images of catalogue pages showing four different piano tilters on my www.flickr.com page. Enter 'tom tuner' on the search line and click on "People". I can take photos and close-ups of the one I use and get measurements if you need them. Also a couple of accessories (clamps and w...

Tom Tuner

Wrestpins with no bushings that stand a long way out of the plank are much more subject to "flagpolling", bending slightly, which does not conduce to tuning stability. Very tight pins can twist at the top of the embedded section, with respect to the bottom of the pin. When or if this subse...

Tom Tuner

Although trichords are not half again as loud as bichords, they sustain longer. One article in Science magazine some years back was a discussion of how the slight phase differences among three strings (which amount to slight differences in tuning) cause them to transfer energy among themselves. It i...

Tom Tuner

If you look closely you will see that the letters and numbers are stamped, not "carved" into the wood. JBS might be J.B. Simpson who made Arion pianos and was later part of Estey Piano Co. An Arion serial number would indicate a date of 1910. If an Estey number it would be 1917. I don't kn...

Tom Tuner

The sand-blasting method (on not too high pressure) with white silica sand has worked well for me. It will leave a frosted finish on metal items, so you might want to keep it off spoons, for instance.

Tom Tuner

Rubber wedge bass mutes are more secure and less damaging to organ keys than a screwdriver.

Tom Tuner

If the mirror is 6" high and runs the width of the case you have a "mirror piano" which has been cut down from an old upright. The mirror was installed to make it appear shorter. It may be necessary to remove the mirror, which would have to be done to tune it in any case, to determine...

Tom Tuner

The "grey alloy" is grey cast iron which can easily be brazed with a nickel-bearing fluxed rod. This won't work with a propane torch, it doesn't get hot enough. A welding shop should easily be able to repair it with a wire-fed TIG welder. In any case, remove the brass toe cap first as it w...

Tom Tuner

It's not that tuning is so difficult to learn (unless you are a musician who can't get the hang of listening to beats), but the sheer amount of practice required to attain even minimal competence is very tedious, actually pretty boring if your master keeps you hard at it. Having only one piano to pr...

Tom Tuner

The evident construction date for this piano would appear to be 1903.

Tom Tuner

Dampers can develop a crust on the surface which can cause a "twang" when the touch the strings, even if nothing has actually been spilled. This usually shows up in old uprights. Take a toothbrush which is no longer employed, cut the (plastic) bristles off short so they have sharp ends and...

Tom Tuner

Kimball did make 'consolettes' , but not short keyboards. The term was not exclusive to Kimball. If it were a Kimball the badge would be on the lower right edge of the fallboard, not under it. Kimballs made in the last 50 years or so will have the serial number stamped in the wood plank over the bac...

Tom Tuner

All the bass string spinning machines I've seen have the spindle with the hook and the chuck turning together via a backshaft. I believe the important point about the core wire tension is that it be sufficint to keep from being pulled too much out of line by tension on the covering wire.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Don Bennett has received excellent recommendations.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

I've sold it to a truck repair shop for replacing a "choke cable" (bowden cable) and to a construction crew for a plumb line to set up an elevator shaft. After I had to fish my car keys out through the window with the coil of wire I fortunately had with me I started keeping the keys clippe...

Tom Tuner

VM&P naphtha or trichloroethelene (which is lots more expensive).
For the well-being of the piano action, kindly do this out-of-doors well away from any sources of combustion.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Didn't you ask this on Piano World? In any case my answer is the same: get a looping machine. It isn't very expensive and does a neat, consistent job. Sure, you can make them by hand, but who wants to do that for an entire set of treble strings? Waste of time! For about #20 and larger wire (USW&...

Tom Tuner

Off the top of my head, no. But let me ask around; I've plenty of contacts who are likely to know.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Well I am very pleased to hear that you were able to have the problem taken care of, and now we know what it was. Voicing ordinarily has nothing to do with there being agraffes or not (unless there is a string rattle in one), it is to do with with felt density and the distribution of tension and com...

Tom Tuner

If a previous tuner brought it up to "concert pitch" you know it is at least structurally competent, and not a complete write-off. One loose wrest-pin is not a catastrophe, there are plenty of ways to mend that which do not involve crossing one's fingers and hoping it will stay put. Tom Tu...

Tom Tuner

String bearing points are the places on the iron frame or bridge where the string changes its direction such the counter-pressure bar, the pressure bar, agraffe, front bridge pin, back bridge pin, aliquot or duplex scale plate or bar.

Tom Tuner

The dates of the awards, medals etc. only give a date which the piano could not have been made before, not what year it was actually made. It probably pre-dates 1920 as no one much bothered making claims about gold metals and such after. If you are acurately reporting your tuner's evaluation you sho...

Tom Tuner

Ord-Hume mentions Boyd Ltd. as being described in a trade directory as harmonium makers as of 1929. As they evidently made player pianos they might have made harmoniums. Of course many firms merely assembled components manufactured by others.

Tom

Tom Tuner

Neither Kimball nor WurliTzer have case styles or finishes to commend them in the least.

Tom

Tom Tuner

Krazny Oktobersk, or whatever they are in cyrillic, are not absolute junk, merely rather mediocre. The casework can be fairly nice, but the hardware appears to have been chewed out of the metal by rodents with dull teeth. Other than for their decorative value, if you care for that sort of styling, t...

Tom Tuner

Have your piano technician find out whether the piano is worth refinishing first. Then have him or her show you how to completely disassemble the case trimmings before proceeding. The coat of paint has undoubtedly seeped into the joints and glued all the case parts together. When you strip it the pa...

Tom Tuner

In the 1980's Estey Piano (related to the organ company only in the distant past) turned out console pianos with molded plastic cases. These were no recommendation for the practice.

Tom Tuner

Wheelock was one of Aeolian Co.'s moderate quality lines. Decent, but not distinguished instruments.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

As far as style goes, it's a plain black box. Obviously a "stencil", I was hoping the name might be recognized. I'm working from photos, so further inspection isn't possible.

Tom

Tom Tuner

I can find no listing of a maker for this name. It is about the size of a small studio upright, 85 keys, overdampers, tape-check action. Serial number given as 2332. On general appearences I would guess 1950's.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

I was going by the so-called ship's pianos I have seen from the 1930's which do have folding keyboards. These are about the size of a console or small studio piano. A magazine adv't from about 1938 went on about one such as fitting modern room furnishing.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Well, it is a significant datum that the problem was noticed by you nearly from new, and that it is becoming worse. Either the foreign object is migrating, the string termination is continuing to deteriorate, or the damper is on the verge of ceasing to work at all.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

They were designed as, and intended for decorator items that would not look like pianos when the keyboard was folded up. Supposedly would resemble a bookcase or some other item of furniture.

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner

Something must have changed. The note(s) did not always do this, and the others do not. There is an anomaly somewhere. Has the piano been moved, dropped, subjected to environmental extremes, abused, taken part in "prepared piano" recitals, played at a party, or otherwise placed in any situ...

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