Piano project

[Tom King]

We bought this Steinway M grand piano from the original owner in the mid 1980's.  Our Son played it from the time he was about 7 until around 12.  It has been in one spot in our house that we now want to use for another purpose for around 30 years.  The lady we bought it from had it given to her as a wedding present.  She had gotten to the age where she needed to go into an assisted living place and needed to sell her house and possessions.  It has never been had Sunlight shining on it for any amount of time in either her house or ours.

It's been missing small veneer pieces on the front, as you can see in the picture.

It's a 1932 Cuban mahogany M and in pretty remarkable condition.  There are not any cracks in the soundboard, which are normally expected with one this age.  The M model is a 5'7" long grand.  It's not a baby grand, or a concert grand, but simply a grand piano.

The action is tired, and needs to be replaced or rebuilt.  The original real ivory and ebony keys are in perfect condition.  

Our Son has other pianos and keyboards and doesn't really have any emotional attachment to this one.  We don't really have a good place to keep it, needing the space for another use now, so we want to sell it.

With the action needing replacement, it's only worth about 6k as a carcass.  If it is refinished with a rebuilt action, using about 6k of parts,  it will be worth over 30k.  For now, we're planning to just clean it up, replace the veneer pieces (I have some Cuban Mahogany veneer), and then decide what to do with it.

I've been studying rebuilding the action, and am inclined to do that myself after watching several youtube videos of people doing it.  It doesn't require any special skills that I don't already have, and watching the videos I see some things I can do better to end up with a more perfect job.  I've not only watched videos, but studied piano technitian forums online.

There is now a company that makes composite parts for a piano action, including Steinway.  The old style wood and felt action parts are available too, but the composite parts have been out long enough to be perfected now.  Playing feel is the same, and consistency and longevity are much better.  The WNG action parts are considered an upgrade to the parts used in wooden and felt actions. 

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures.  We moved it out from the alcove it's been in that we now want to turn into a hallway connecting an addition on our house.  We're a couple of days into the deciding what to do stage.  Specialized cleaning tools are on order, but waiting for them to get here.

It's not like I need another project, but this looks like something I would enjoy.  I may need to put a mini split in a small building we're using that only has a freezer in it right now to have somewhere to work on it.  I can empty the room to the right in the picture and move the freezer in there.

The carcass is from the period considered the best years for Steinways, and the wood used is no longer even available.

 

 

[Tpt life]

I have serviced the action on several pianos. Yes, you have the skills. 

[wtnhighlander]

Sounds like an interesting project, Tom. Certainly a diversion from your historical home restorations. Hope you post a journal!

[Tom King]

Around 23 minutes in that video, using a sanding disc on a die grinder to shorten the shanks freaks me out with it throwing carbon sanding dust all over everything.  I can sharpen chisels sharp enough to slice those carbon fiber tubes cleanly with a slicing cut.  That's just one example of how I have seen quite a number of things in their videos that I would do differently.

I don't know when we'll get into it.  Pam just wants to sell it like it is, but that seems like a waste to me. We're going to clean it up in the house and then decide what to do. 

If we do decide to rebuild it, I will need to build a piano tilter and cart/sled to move it the couple of hundred yards to that building.  That will require work on that building first too, so one thing always leads to another, and it's not like I don't have more than I can possibly do already.

I feel like this is something I can do when I get too old to climb and work on the outside of houses, and something that I would enjoy doing.  I think I'm in a unique position with my background and having one in hand to work on.  Steinway doesn't rebuild actions.  They just replace them with whole new actions.  There are a lot of old ones that just get tossed.

[Ronn W]

Great looking piano.  My father bought an upright foor pedal player piano when I was a boy.  When we tried to adjust the slide which changes the key that the song is played in all the old lead tubes (88) broke off.  He rebuilt the bellows and replace all the tubes.  We used that piano for years afterwards.  Along with the old origianl paper rolls. of music.

[Ynidzake]

Had a similar situation where an old grand sat unused for years, and bringing it back to life was like unlocking memories. The worn action can be tricky, but with some care, it’s amazing how these beauties bounce back. Also, tried using an app like artmaster for piano lessons alongside tuning—it’s a cool way to blend old charm with new tech!

[gee-dub]

I used to live next door to a mother and son team that repaired / restored player pianos out of their home shop.  Fascinating stuff; the variations in parts, felts, bellows, etc.

[Tom King]

I never got into working on that one.  Our Son said he wanted it and would redo it sometime in the future.  I found a decent set of three wheeled casters that let's us move it around pretty easily and found somewhere to put it.  Too many other things to do and the list doesn't seem to get any shorter.