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Post by lowell on Feb 6, 2022 0:29:07 GMT -6
We bought an old upright called a Gershwin (made by Swan Musical Instruments in Japan in the 70's). It needs some reconditioning of all the felt parts and some of the glued parts on the bottom of the Whippen have started falling off. I glue them back on. The piano tuner didn't offer to replace the tuning pins, (he didn't want to scare us with the price) but I found another amateur piano repairman who detailed how to do it. Some of the pins are bottomed out, they've been hammered into the tuning block until there isn't any more hammering possible. The amateur on youtube found out that the pins come in different sizes. If I replace them with ones that are 2 sizes larger (they are threaded), and take my time, being careful to not unwind the coil of the piano string (wire) while slipping the straight part that goes through the hole in the pin, out; I should be able to replace the pins that are too loose. Replacing all the felt is a bigger job. Just about every moving part in the action has felt attached to it. The felt gets worn and compressed after 50 years. Some can be fluffed up, like the felt on the hammer where it hits the string, but some will need to be replaced, like the felt on the dampers. For now it is playable. It has a beautiful tone. I think the Japanese company put the best Japanese spruce into the sounding board. My gal wants a baby grand though, so we may sell it.
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Post by James T. Kirk on Feb 6, 2022 6:09:47 GMT -6
I don't know anything about pianos but I do like figuring out how to fix things. I Googled piano tuning pins to see what they look like and it seems there are threaded and unthreaded ones and I did see some that were oversized so I kind of understand what you're talking about. I also saw a Youtube video that shows a sleeve that can be inserted into the hole to make it smaller. There are a number of videos showing various methods for addressing loose pins. Have fun with it and post on your progress.
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Post by lowell on Feb 6, 2022 16:21:19 GMT -6
The video I found was the Frugal Berry on Youtube He bought pins that were too long and had to drill a longer hole in the tuning block. I like his explanation from the viewpoint of one amateur to another. I plan on removing a pin and measuring it to buy the correct length pin. I like the way he is able to re-use the strings. I will probably break a few strings, so I might want to order some. The use of an electronic tuner and a guitar pick is how I tuned the Gershwin. I use the guitar pick to pluck the string I want to tune. It worked well enough for me to get a satisfactory sounding piano. We have had the Gershwin upright for a year and a half now. The first two tunings were done by the piano tuner. He fixed the sticky keys with some liquid in bottle that lubricated the pivot points. He hammered on the loose pins and complained that some pins were hammered almost to the spot where the strings touched the tuning block. I didn't like the hammering technique. It seemed to me to be like stripping the threads on a bolt that is inserted into a threaded hole in an engine block. I tuned it the last time, about 4 months ago. Some of the keys are a little out of tune now. I might want to mark the pins like he did, that are out of tune. Those are probably the ones that need new larger pins. Of course I don't know what was used by the manufacturer in this piano until I take one of the pins out. Some of the keys, when played in rapid succession with other nearby keys will "bobble". This is probably due to worn felts. I found a video that shows some of the causes and remedies for that. www.howardpianoindustries.com/bobbling-hammers-in-a-vertical-piano/My gal wanted an acoustic for her advanced piano students. The acoustic piano has a different feel to it, and she knows that her students who will be serious about playing piano will have to comfortable playing an acoustic, since college classes require a student to play them and often an acoustic is what is available for performance venues. I am comfortable playing a portable digital piano. It's what I used for our gigs (before covid). I like the sound and action of a Roland best, but I have a couple of Kurzweils too. They sometimes need repair too. My Kurzweil PC88 has a smashed numerical button. I bought a replacement but haven't worked on it yet. I hired a repairman to fix another problem for it and after he was done, the last key, the lowest key wouldn't play. He had disconnected all the connections for the ribbon cables and reconnected them in an attempt to repair it. I think he broke one of the connector pins, so I am going to try to repair that too. He fixed the loud hum it made but couldn't say what it was that fixed it. He thought it might have been the battery. Now it makes the loud hum again and won't boot up (like before). I need the numerical number 1 key to do the reset (it's the one that is smashed). So that's another project. I need to take the screws out and remove the cover to check the battery. It's a matter of finding a suitable place to work on it and getting started.
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Post by James T. Kirk on Feb 7, 2022 13:02:50 GMT -6
I love Youtube. You can find a "how-to" video for almost anything. I use them a lot. Not long ago I had to change a brake fluid sensor on my truck and never would have seen this one little tab that had to be pressed to get it out. Even with the info, I needed a flex mirror and I had to engineer my own tool to reach it. BUT, I got'r done.
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