Emerson Upright Rebuild Page Two
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Picture thirteen shows the pores of the wood being filled and other minor repairs being made so that the finish of the lacquer will end up very flawless. Picture fourteen is not of the same piano but shows some of the things that sometimes have to be done in order to repair the cabinet of a piano before it can be properly refinished. In the case of number fourteen there were some loose bits of veneer in the middle of the sides of the piano. It was necessary to use some unique clamping arrangements to access the loose areas.
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Picture fifteen shows the piano being restrung and picture sixteen shows the completed restringing job. All the tuning pins on each piano I restore are carefully sorted and checked. It is not uncommon to find tuning pins that are not perfectly round right out of the box. Any pins that are not sufficiently round are discarded. Also, even though all 2/0 tuning pins are supposed to be .242" in diameter. It is normal, however, to find variances of as much as one or even two thousandths. I sort each set of tuning pins I buy so that the smallest pins in the set are used in the treble and the largest pins are used in the bass of the piano. Coupled with careful drilling, this results in a piano whose tuning pins are very even in tightness. This makes tuning the piano much more satisfying.
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Picture seventeen shows the finished piano after the player mechanism had been installed and the case reassembled. The original ivories are in place after the dozens of chips had been repaired, the loose glue joint redone and the entire set bleached and polished. The results are truly wonderful as you can see. The piano has the light on and is playing in this picture. In the case of this piano, an "O" roll mechanism was installed. The piano can now play 10 to 15 tunes off of a paper roll then automatically rewinds and plays again. Many other styles and options for player piano conversions are available. This is just one of them. Eighteen shows a close up shot of the piano's legs. Nineteen shows the piano bench that was custom made to match this piano and its legs. The refinishing of a piano is a very long process. The quality and attention to detail required for piano work is very different than what is commonly practiced in the refinishing of old furniture. Many steps are required that are not used in furniture work. It is very common to find pianos that have had furniture grade finishes put on them. While this is an option that I will discuss using with my customers and is definitely a money saving option, I don't recommend it on pianos that are of any significant musical or historical value. Follow this link to read about piano refinishing in detail.
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