A customer requested all new keytops on his piano.
The old sharps were faded and the ivories were broken and chipped.
After removing the old tops, I sanded down the keys and attached and shaped new ones. It took several hours, but it is so exciting to see it finished (picture shown below - pictures used by permission of owner - American Fork)
The piano is located in American Fork.
Does your piano sound this off??? Maybe it might sound better to get it tuned up. Thanks for watching this beautiful rendition of Clair de Lune. I think Debussy would cry, though he was actually still alive when this piano still hadn't been tuned!
This is the start of doing some work on an old grand piano, by Wm. Knabe and Co. (5' 6"). When I received it, it had a ton of scratches, paint missing from the plate, it ended up having at least one broken string, the piano had dirt inside, worn ivory keys, and pinblock problems.
After a lot of work, it currently looks like the pictures to the right.
I want to regulate, repair, and tune the piano next. I have also thought about putting all new strings onto the piano.
It was a great opportunity to tune two pianos which
were side by side. The family had purchased two of
them so they could play duets together.
One of them required a pitchraise, but both needed
to be tuned. It took several hours but it was so much
fun.
(Highland, UT, picture of house used by permission
of owner)
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Pitch Raise Techniques
Often I run into pianos that needs to be cleaned out. It helps tremendously with stopping keys from sticking, helping the touch of the piano (grime diminishes the capability and power), cleans away dust and also sometimes there are interesting finds.
Some of the most interesting finds I have seen are:
-A $50 bill
-A valuable antique from the 1800's
-Rat's nest
-Family pictures that are decades old
- An entire deck of cards
-Playdough between the keys and the like
String Replacement
This is an 8 out of 10 on the need for cleaning.