Restoration of a Fischer Ampico grand for Jim Durfee
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1) A composite of several photos taken of the player mechanism before work began.
2) The player mechanism after it had been removed from the piano. Clearly,
this mechanism has had some work done to it in the past. However, many important
aspects had been skipped. The valves had not been releathered, I doubt the pouches
had been replaced and much of the tubing had been left original. In addition, a lot
of improper or worn tubing had been affixed to the wrong types of elbows and nipples using
hose clamps. Finally, the pneumatics which had been recovered were still leaking
considerably. Although the mechanism functioned after a fashion, it wasn't working
like it should. These mechanisms are very delicate and must be in perfect working
order to player the music with the proper expression and nuance.
3) The underside of the piano after the mechanism had been removed. Many
additional photos were taken and are available upon request. However, there were too
many to post on the web since disk space is at a premium.
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4) Before taking the tension off the strings, the sound board was thoroughly tested
and evaluated. The string test showed that the board had about 1/16" of crown
in it with the tension up on the strings. Next, the tone of the piano was evaluated.
The treble sustain was acceptable but the bass tone had me concerned.
Therefore, I cleaned one of the original strings (see photo) and voiced the corresponding
hammer for maximum tone. I wanted to hear if the board was at fault for the poor
tone or the string and hammer. The final evaluation had me suspicious of this
board's ability to produce beautiful tone. Further evaluation was necessary and will
be documented further down this page.
5) A picture of the piano before the dismantling of the cabinet and harp began.
You may be able to detect in this photo that many of the ivories had come off.
The ivory was mostly intact when the piano was picked up originally but the glue
had failed across much of the keyboard during storage. This was not so much the
fault of the storage as of the glue. The glue was obviously getting near the end of
its viable life so it is a "happy accident" that storage brought it to the final
end. Now we can address this problem during restoration instead of the issue coming
to light several years after the customer got the piano back. All the ivory is
present and clean, so the customer can choose to glue it back on or replace it with new
plastic. I'll leave that decision up to him. This wasn't in the original
restoration plan but we'll work it out to his advantage one way or another.
6) Another photo of the piano before dismantling.
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7) Checking the down weight of the action. The original design was weighted
out correctly. The key weight is 50 grams. So many measurements and notes are
taken on all my restorations before they are taken apart that the data covers an entire,
hand written, page. Such items as tonal evaluations, key weight, down bearing,
crown, plate height, and scale are recorded.
8) Checking the down bearing on the strings before taking the tension off.
This test was performed a second time after the tension was off all but the test
strings. The high treble, midrange and bass had acceptable down bearing measurements
but they were definitely not "ample." The reading being taken in this
photo showed no down bearing whatsoever. This greatly concerned me. After the
tension was taken off the strings, the board had clearly risen a little. Down
bearings had increased slightly and the string test for crown on the board had gone from
1/16" to 1/8". However, the low treble shown in this photo still had no
crown whatsoever. This means that the bridge is actually pulling the strings
downward in this area instead of pushing them upward. The next step in evaluating
this board is to dry it and see how badly it cracks. So far my evaluation had been
borderline. I felt that we could restore this board as planned but I was also
feeling that (if the piano were mine) I would definitely be replacing the board.
More on this subject further down the page.
9) A photo of the action. This picture shows that this piano has whippens that
are very much like the whippens in the Chickering grand also documented on these pages.
Click here to see that project.
The shape of these whippens reminds me a great deal of the Kimball La Petite grand.
The wood of the repetition lever is shaped so that it is nearly impossible to gain
access to the springs for the purpose of adjustment. Also, this action uses silk
cords to mount the springs. When these cords get to be this age they begin to make
me nervous. So far, the silks appear to be strong but I am recommending to the
customer that we replace these whippens. New whippens will be much easier and
cheaper to regulate in the future (some technicians would probably refuse to even attempt
to adjust the spring tension on these whippens) and new parts will also complete the
restoration of the action. Due to health concerns for myself and my wife, I am
considerably behind schedule. I had already promised this customer to give them
(free of charge) new shanks and flanges for this action as a thank you for their patience
as we got back on our feet and back up to speed. New whippens would really complete
that as the entire action stack would, then, be new. Replacing the whippens will
also vastly increase the longevity of the action as well as its performance. If we
replace the whippens, I will certainly have to reweigh the action. This will have
the advantage of really evening out the touch and the evenness of play for the player
mechanism. The new Renner parts will also be far superior to the original parts in
most aspects; regulation and performance. These original whippens can certainly
continue to function but the evenness of the regulation will definitely be compromised
since the spring tension will be virtually impossible to get perfect.
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10) This photo shows that the back checks are very worn. They can still be
used as they are but, if the owner decides to replace the whippens, I will certainly throw
new leather on these back checks as an added bonus to really bring the action up to
perfection. This is the same path we took on the Chickering action mentioned above
and the results were excellent.
11) A picture of the damper tray after it was removed. The underlevers are in
perfect shape. However, the tray is hinged with cotton webbing which I will replace
just o be certain it never gives the customer a moment's grief.
12) The piano after the strings were removed. You'll notice my pin block jack
under the block in the bass. The design of the piano was for a "floating"
pin block. This block floated so much that it wasn't even attached to the case of
the piano in any real way. The jack was placed snugly under the block before the
plate was removed and then taped to the block and the key bed. The block was also
carefully taped in the treble to keep it from moving when the plate was taken out.
The block had been indexed to the plate with holes drilled through both. These
holes are used to make patterns for the shaping of the new block.
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13) The plate is now out and the block is being indexed and patterned for
replacement. The new design will have the block glued and doweled into the case and
the stretcher like they do with Steinways. This will increase tuning stability and
hopefully increase tonal production as well.
14) A picture of the edge of the pin block where it touched the lip of the plate.
There are slight traces of blue chalk where the two touched. The indications
show that the block hardly touched the plate anywhere. It was a very poor fit.
The new block will be fit much more closely than the original.
15) The "gutted" piano.
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16) Drying the sound board. The final evaluation of this sound board will take
place once we see how much it cracks and how far the existing cracks open up as it dries.
If this board cracks a great deal, I'm going to encourage the customer to replace
it even though it is still possible to restore it. I think that the board is
definitely boarder line. It is not producing tone as well as it could and it does
not have as long a future life in front of it as we could hope for. The board can be
shimmed and reused. The result will still be a great improvement from what it was
and it will still last for a number of years. However, it won't produce the tone
that a new board could produce nor will it last a fraction as many years as a new board
could.
17) The loose cabinet boards set aside for stripping. Only the legs remain
attached to the piano at the moment. They will soon be removed so that they can be
stripped as well.
18) Pulling the bridge pins. Waiting until the bridge has dried a while often
makes the pins easier to pull without damaging the bridges. You can see, in this
photo, some of the cracks that are in this board.
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19) Restoration of the player mechanism begins. This
mechanism had the appearance (at first glance) of having been completely restored before.
But upon further examination you find that none of the really difficult and
important jobs were ever tackled. None of the valves, pouches or gaskets were
attended to. In addition, any pneumatics or hoses/tubes which were salvageable at
the time of the previous restoration were reused. On this restoration, we will be
replacing everything. The finished product is to be factory fresh in every respect.
20) You can see that much of the mechanism had the signal lines marked with masking
tape which is dried out now. In addition, the glue from the tape has adhered itself
miserably to whatever it touched. All this has to be scraped off so that the pieces
can receive fresh flat black paint. The valves pictured here are the pump cut out,
Ampico cut out, amplifier and soft/damper pedal pneumatic valve assemblies.
21) In this shot, all the valves have been taken apart. Also, the unit valves
for the soft/damper assembly have been broken apart, cleaned and dressed and all the
valves have received new pouches. The valve leathers will also be replaced. At
this first stage, I was happy with how the valves came apart so I went ahead and reused
the cork gaskets. However, I did have a little trouble getting them to finally be
absolutely air tight upon reassembly so I decided to replace all future gaskets on this
mechanism regardless of their condition.