Restoration of a Clavia-Concerto for Steven Baskin
67) 
67a) 
68) 
67) Sorry about this being fuzzy. My new camera has a
very finicky shutter. You really have to hold very still. This shows the new
hammer butts after they were worked on by me. They come with these spring points
lubricated with a lubritious paint that squeeks and clicks during use. All new parts
are coming that way now but the old felt bushing method is still far better. I,
therefore, scrape that paint out and glue in old fashioned spring punchings lubricated
with Teflon powder.
67a) Another angle of this showing the new hammer shanks clearly as well.
68) Using a straight edge and guide hammers to install the new hammers into place.
You can see the new damper heads in this shot as well. Of all the parts of
the damper, these are often the first to go bad. The brass screws corrode and become
unreliable. The rabbited wood covers over these heads are unique to each piano and
often cannot be replaced without seriously compromising the function of the dampers.
So, I removed these carefully, cleaned them up, checked them for faults and then
glued them to the new parts.
69) 
70) 
71) 
69) The new hammers glued into place.
70) This photo ended up out of order along with a few of those following. The
first thing I did with the action was to remove all moving parts and take all the rails
off of their cast iron brackets. The brackets were cleaned up and repainted, the
rails were refelted, cleaned up and sealed then it was all reassembled. Most
rebuilders never take an upright action down this far.
71) This shows the new hammer butts and shanks being installed onto the restored
framework.
72) 
73) 
74) 
72) The original dampers levers are recieving new spring
loaded flanges and heads, new spring punchings and the felt is checked and cleaned on the
base damper lift rod areas. The replacement of the entire lever would have left us
with some problems due to unavailability of precisely matching replacement parts of that
type. The originals were in good shape. Not to mention that the price of piano
action parts for uprights have tripled since Baldwin shut down their Mexican factory and
everything went to Japan. I have had to use ingenuity to come up with finished
products that are as good as new by replacing key components while keeping good parts that
are irreplaceable or priced to death of late.
73) The restored dampers are installed.
74) The entire action is now assembled.
75) 
76) 
77) 
75) These are the "tongues and flanges" that go
with the whippen and sticker assemblies. These are often the first parts to go when
these parts wear out. In order to perfect these parts, I installed all new tongues
and flanges and refelted the undersides of the stickers (the square rods that transfer the
key motion to the hammer.)
76) The next thing that was done to this action was to install hardwood inserts near
the joint between the whippen and the square sticker. I could replace the stickers
but the only way to do that is with "universal" parts now. These parts are
made from plane dowel rods and are significantly weaker than the antique square rods.
The hardwood inserts strengthen the joints of the whippens where they key into the
stickers to a point that exceeds the strength of new parts.
77) Another shot showing the new felt under the stickers. Originally, they
simply had a square of felt glued to the bass. I placed a new square of felt there
and then stretched a layer of felt over it under tension. This creates a spring
loaded effect which will keep the part more stable and durable than any new part which
would also simply have a square of felt at the bottom. These stickers are now better
than new.
78) 
79) 
80) 
78) I originally planned to replace the whippens but the
installation of a Pianomation system brought a very good idea to mind. By using
softer voicing on the hammers and placing the Pianomation so that it actuated the whippens
exactly the same way the old player piano mechanism used to, I was able to borrow the
upwards pressure of the keys to add volume and control to the Pianomation that otherwise
is lost when installing the mechanism under the keybed. In addition, I discovered
after getting the keybed out and working with it that it was not as string as one could
hope. Cutting slots in it to accommodate the Pianomation was ill advised. So I
came up with a unique solution. Because the original whippens had always been set up
to interface with a player piano, I could use their shape to accommodate the Pianomation.
This meant that I had to glue and screw Hornbeam arms to the flat parts of the
whippens and then cover those with hard felt. New whippens do not have any means in
the way they are shaped to make this possible. This design will improve repetition,
loud and soft play.
79) Another shot of the restored and largely parts replaced dampers.
80) Sanding out the cabinet's lacquer.
81) 
82) 
83) 
81) All the loose boards for this piano and one other of a
similar color all refinishes and ready to be reinstalled.
82) This is the piano's bottom board. It is filthy and has many things wrong
with it. In picture #86, you will see what it looks like cleaned up, rebushed,
polished, reglued and painted.
83) Installing the Pianomation system directly to the action as previously
described. The system is not normally expected to be installed this way so it took
about a week to come up with all the parts and mounts I needed to get all this in place
and aligned properly.
84) 
85) 
86) 
84) Another angle of the solenoid rail ready for the poppets
or actuators that move the action.
85) The poppets are installed. Exact regulation will have to wait until after
the piano is reassembled and the action regulated.
86) The restored bottom board. One of the two pedals had been worn through.
However, I am aware that the owner holds much affection for the original piano due
to its history. I thought it would be an injustice to the piano and its owner to
replace these. I will be making felt pedal covers as many piano have that can be
left on or taken off at will. It takes a little thinking to decifer this photo since
I blacked out the surrounds as best I could in order to draw full attention to the board
itself.
87) 
88) 
89) 
87) The original restoration I did to the keys was
beautiful. Thankfully, this project had to wait a while and the piano was with me a
good long while. The glue I was provided with caused the keytops to turn brown over
a period of about eight months. If I had been a production shop, this ugly problem
would have developed in the customer's home. As it stood, I was able to recover the
keys using a more tried and true glue and produced a lovely effect again which, this time,
will not let us down.
88) Installing the bass strings and touching up some imperfections in the plate
finish due to casting flaws and a little problem with dust.
89) Reassembling the piano.
90) 
91) 
92) 
90) The top board had to be glued back onto
the piano for which I didn't get a photo. Here, the action/Pianomation assembly is
in the piano ready to be regulated. All the strings have been chipped up to pitch
and set into the plate pins, tuning pins and bridges with the appropriate tools and
techniques.
91) Testing the solenoids for continuity through the coils and for any
ground faults through the rail.
92) Installing the driver boards.
93) 
94) 
95) 
93) This is my pneumatic device for pounding in actions.
It has a soft platen that sits on the keys. This device delivers a heavy blow
to every key in the piano about once per second. I leave it on for about 20 hours
which is well over the equivelant of playing the piano for fourty hours.
94) Making the stained glass window that was derived from a sample sent to me by the
customer.
95) These two projections are originally covered in felt but the felt wears quickly
and ends up being a problem. This picture shows these pieces having been recovered
in tough leather.
96) 
97) 
98) 
99) 
96) The assembly of the piano partially complete.
97) The finished piano includes a light inside to backlight the stained glass
window.
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