Initial Key Cleaning Completed

All the important missing action parts have been ordered for Xena, the 1883 Schubert upright undergoing rehab. In addition, all new hammers, damper felts are on the way. The piano supply company shipped three days later than promised; but it's just as well. I'm using the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend to focus on the keys. And I'll need it! I just spent close to 10 hours giving them their initial cleaning taking off years of dirt.

With all the gross dirt gone, I can now see what I'm facing over the rest of the weekend.

My client made an early decision that he wanted to save the old ivory keys rather than put in a shiny new replacement set. Aesthetically for the age of the piano I think it's the correct decision. However, after removing the first layer of dirt, it's clear that the ivories have aged unevenly. It's a larger job than I'd envisioned. They are discolored significantly and have a large number of blotchy yellow spots. My next step will be to polish out them out with diatomaceous earth to see if I can even them out. The sharps actually look pretty good -- real ebony I'm suspecting -- so I may not have to relacquer them as I'd originally thought. Lose one, gain one.

After the polishing is done 14 key tops are missing and/or damaged so I'll be able to put to good use the old ivory tops I was able to find back in September. There are also 7 key fronts that need to be removed. My plan there is to use the material from the damaged key tops, cut it to size for the fronts and replace those. Only one sharp key needs to be reglued so that's very good news. By the time I get all this done, it'll probably be Monday. Hopefully, the UPS shipment will arrive by then so I can start working on the action.

The clock is ticking on the Christmas delivery; but if I can stay focused I think I'll have it done with a week to spare! If anyone is reading this, wish me luck. :)

Stay tuned for the Sunday evening and/or Monday update.

Getting down with Xena

Today has been one of those quiet productive days in the cottage. There's been a thunderstorm about every hour on the hour so the temptation to run errands has been nearly non-existent. The cats hate thunderstorms so they're hiding -- one under the bed, the other in a cupboard. No interruptions there. And -- up until now no computer -- the lighting strikes were so close I'd powered everything down and pulled plugs to protect all the electronics. Nothing to do but finally get to work on Xena.

Today's major accomplishment was unpacking all the tools & parts that came in, setting up the new jig so I can work on Xena. Photos of the action were made and sent with inquiries to the supply houses. I'm pretty sure I know what needs doing--or not (better to leave certain things alone) -- but a second opinion from the folks who do it every day isn't going to hurt. And, probably will save time, effort and money in the long run.

Another accomplishment of the week was locating the old ivories needed for Xena's multiple gaps and gashes in her keyboard. After several fruitless inquiries Roger Aycock in Georgia gave me a lead on some folks in South Carolina. "We often just send the keys to a lady in Florida who makes jewelry out of them," related Danny of Boggs Piano Service http://boggspiano.com/index.html Apparently, they restore enough old pianos where the owners don't want the old ivories to have a small supply on hand. One source I'd contacted wanted $45 per head so I didn't know what to expect...only $1 each! "After all they're used," said Danny. They even shipped them before getting the check from me. Those ivories should be arriving early this week so I can begin working on the keyboard while waiting to get my parts quotes from the various suppliers.



And, now there's a third

Zelda and Yuri (who have both been sorely neglected over the past few months) have a new roommate. Or at least as much of it, i.e. the keyframe, keys and action, that can fit in the cottage presently. She's an 1883 Schubert upright that's been in storage for the past 20-30 years. I think for my consistent naming purposes she'll get called Xena, but perhaps more appropriate might be Phoenix as she's literally needing resurrection.

It's a sweet story, however. And her presence will also serve to get me refocused on the piano technician part of my journey in addition to the tuning.

A young man called me about three weeks ago to see if I would be willing to rebuild his wife's great grandmother's piano -- actually the piano the wife as a little girl first learned to play on. After great grandma passed on the piano was put in storage where mice feasted on its innards and excess humidity took its toll ... and where Xena was forgotten. It's his dream to give his wife the piano tied up with a big red bow on Christmas morning this year.

After looking it over I realized that I could rebuild the action within that period of time and get it playing again. Though there's no room left in the cottage to work on the cabinet. So he and a buddy (with some consulting help from me) are going to take on that work in a separate space.

The work began this past week. Before separating the action from the harp and strings the first of what will be -- no doubt -- several pitch raises took place. The piano was anywhere from 50 cents to a full pitch flat throughout; but, amazingly, with some very careful maneuvering to break off the encrusted rust on the tuning pins, it came up to pitch without a single broken string. My guess is that the instrument was probably restrung perhaps as recently as 40 years ago. Much of the rest of the action and harp show a lot of corrosion; but the strings show very little in comparison. And they still sing --- not the brittle sound that poor Zelda's 100 year old strings have.

And they are about the only thing that won't require huge amounts of work between now & Christmas: action, hammers, dampers, backchecks, damaged keys OMG!!! and other stuff that I haven't even figured out yet.

So Thursday we made the separation. The solid mahogany cabinet went to the secret refinishing shop. And the action is here at the cottage with Zelda and Yuri. Guess, they'll be neglected a while longer; but this job will allow me to have the resources to address their issues later -- Zelda's cracked pinblock and need for new strings and Yuri's restringing. I think I'll have enough to keep me busy during the autumn and winter.

Now I just have to figure out how to balance my life better: the day job that pays the bills, producing the Music in Paradise shows http://www.musicinparadise.com/ plus doing the PR and fundraising, tuning as many pianos as I can, volunteering at MCC and Keys Chorale and, occasionally, getting in a photoshoot.

Stay tuned for the next tuning. Xena rules the roost for now.