Restoration of a Fischer Ampico grand for Jim Durfee
181) 
182) 
183) 
181) The rim is now stripped of old finish and ready to have
the veneer attended to.
182) Thick walnut veneers have been cut from this block in order to make new
material to replace the faulty veneer along the cheeks of the piano. Store bought
veneers are quite thin and so I decided to make my own for this project so that the
finished piece would not be subject to any future trouble.
183) The legs after they were stripped. This picture shows that one of the
legs did not strip like the others. I can only assume that there was a difference in
solar exposure or treatment at the original factory that is behind this. It will
make for quite a challenge to get the legs to match well to the rest of the piano because
they are not walnut like the rest of the piano and the original stain did not hold in such
a way as to make rematching them easy. There was also some failures of glue joints
that occurred in the stripping process that are being repaired in this photo.
184) 
185) 
186) 
184) Gluing the new veneer onto the cheeks of the piano.
I used hide glue which meant that clamping was going to be challenging. Most
of the attachment was done by letting the glue gel on the veneer and then rolling it on
with a heated metal rolling pin. However, this had to be followed up with some
judicious clamping to ensure that the glue would cure tightly. The tape is primarily
there to hold the veneer from sliding as it was being attached. However, because of
the thickness of the veneer it was possible to use the tape to help clamp as well.
185) Before the left side could be veneered, the decorative wood accent on that side
of the piano had to be restored and glued back down. If we had been working with new
wood, I would have been more inclined to use aliphatic resin to glue the veneer down.
However, because I had to deal with hide glue residue left behind when I removed
the old veneer, I chose to use a compatible glue for the new walnut. This made the
task much more difficult but much more reliable in the future. It is never wise to
glue new veneer over an older layer even if the older veneer is in good shape. The
gluing process can weaken the glue joint of the older veneer. For this reason, care
must be taken to get all the old veneer and glue residue off before laying in new
material.
186) This photo shows that a piece of the gingerbread on the bass side was missing.
Photos were taken as the new piece was hand carved from a piece of walnut but the
photos were lost to a software problem on the computer. All that I have left are
beginning and ending photos of this repair.
187) 
188) 
189) 
187) Here, a leg is propped in place to show how it lines up
with the gingerbread. This shows the repaired bit of carving in place. The
gloss isn't as high, in this photo, on the piece that was repaired because the new wood
soaked up more sealer than the rest of the wood. Once the lacquer is in place, the
repair should be invisible.
188) This photo is here to show the color troubles we had getting the legs to match.
The digital camera magnifies the problem drastically so it is easier to explain.
There are three different colors in this photo. The reason is the flash of
the camera. The reflected light from the flash shows almost all the glaze but none
of the stain. We see a lot of red on the rim because a layer of medium dark mahogany
was added to a glaze over the stain on most of the piano in order to warm the color up.
The walnut turned a sickly, sallow color once stripped which staining didn't
improve upon much. The glaze helped to warm the color up and make it rich. The
legs were of two different stripped colors and had to be glazed differently and separately
to get a color match. Although it wasn't possible to get the color of the legs to be
100% identical to the rest of the piano, the match is quite acceptable even though the
glaze enhancing aspects of this photo would seem to contradict that statement. It's
normal in any piano for the legs to appear slightly different in color than the rest of
the piano; especially in specific lighting settings. This is caused by the fact that
the grain of the wood is oriented 90 degrees from the rim. The light strikes the
legs differently resulting in a slightly different effect. When staining the legs, I
take this fact into consideration and attempt to stain the legs to compensate for the
average lighting scenerio. I try to make it so that the legs will match the piano
despite the differing ways in which light plays off them.
189) This photo actually shows a much better demonstration of what the finished
color of the piano actually is. A number of the loose boards are placed on the piano
in this photo so that you can see the match of the pieces and get a better feel for the
overall color.
190) 
191) 
192) 
190) Replacing the pin block. The pin block has been
rough cut in this photo. The rough cut piece is driven into the plate and marks are
caught on the mating surfaces. These marks are then sanded and/or carved away until
the fit of the block to the plate is excellent.
191) Here, the fitted block has been lightly skim coated with epoxy and then clamped
to the plate. This technique pushes the epoxy off any areas that were already
fitting perfectly to the plate and fills in any small spots that weren't making contact
with the plate. By doing this, the finished block will mate up with the plate along
100% of the lip with no exceptions.
192) Drilling the tuning pin and screw holes into the new pin block. Note the
angle of the drill press that was adjusted to match the original and the vacuum line next
to the bit to cool it. The cooling keeps the bit from overheating. A hot bit
can burn the holes and also make the holes different sizes as it expands.
193) 
194) 
195) 
193) Using the patterns taken from the piano as it was
disassembled, the new pin block is marked for cutting so that it can be installed into the
piano in a full-fit Steinway style design. The installation of the pin block will
have to wait until after the sound board has been installed. The pin block is in the
way of my clamps when gluing in the sound board so I'll leave the block out until the
board is complete. This will also allow me to play a tiny bit with the plate height
to account for any slight differences the new action may present as well as helping to get
the down bearing of the strings over the bridges correct.
194) The piano is now on its side and the old sound board has been knocked out.
Before removing the original board, index holes are marked and drilled through the
board, into the rim of the piano. These index marks will be used to ensure that the
new board/bridge assembly is positioned correctly.
195) Towels soaked in a diluted vinegar solution are being pressed onto the rastin
of the piano where the old board was glued. This will dissolve all the old glue and
enable me to remove all bits of old sound board wood and glue without damaging the rastin.
The rastin is what we call the shelf on which the sound board is glued.
196) 
197) 
198) 
196) The rastin is now totally clean. A few small
voids were found and one or two small voids were created during the removal of the old
board. These will be filled with Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty and then sanded flat
before the new board is glued into place. It became apparent, once the old board was
out and the wood of the rim could be seen in a fresh, unoxidized area, that the inner rim
of this piano is made of poplar. Usually the rim and inner rim of all pianos are
made of maple. However, because this piano was a reproducer and would have a lot of
components attached to this inner rim, I believe they wanted a lighter wood that was
easier to install screws into. Maple would have been better for overall tone as well
as ruggedness of design but the poplar is only half the weight that maple would have been.
Still, this rim is incredibly thick so what we lost to the use of a lesser wood, we
gained back by additional thickness.
197) This is a side by side photo of the old pin block and the new. From the
look of the old block, I suspect that treatment with glycerin had been resorted to in the
past in order to attempt to get the tuning pins tight enough to keep the piano in tune.
The block was in really bad shape.
198) The old sound board is out in this photo and the bridges have also been drilled
with index holes and then separated from the board. Care must be taken not to damage
the glue joint of the bridges as they are removed. For this job, I prefer to use a
very wide bladed putty knife that I have sharpened to a razor sharp edge. The width
and thinness of the blade help to prevent damage to the bridges. I don't care if I
destroy the board under the bridge but the bridge must be kept perfect. Piano supply
houses offer us an offset chisel for removing bridges. I don't use nor would I use
these chisels because I think they are prone to damaging the bridges.
This piano uses solid maple bridges with caps on the upper surface to prevent splitting. The higher quality brands of piano make these bridges out of wood laminations that have the layers oriented vertically. This allows better sound transmission along the bridge. However, these solid maple bridges tend to be lighter than the vertically laminated ones. I often wonder if the lesser sound transmitting qualities of a solid bridge isn't offset by the fact that it is easier to set the bridge in motion due to its weight...? I've restored many solid as well as laminated bridges over the years. I have been able to make pianos of lesser quality that had solid maple bridges stand up right next to a laminated bridge piano with just as good a tone quality. I still prefer the laminated and will make a laminated bridge if a new bridge is called for every time. However, I really don't feel at all guilty about reusing a solid maple bridge like this one. I don't worry about whether the finished product will sound good. I know that my new sound board will be the best there is for tone production and the type of bridge doesn't significantly effect this as long as the bridge is either new or well restored.
199) 
200) 
201) 
199) Restoring the bridges: First, the original bridge
pins are removed and the holes are resized. In the case of this piano, the top
section had originally been #7 bridge pins. It is not usually possible to put #8
pins in this section. The originals had been moderately tight so I coated the inside
of the holes with thinned hide glue. This should stabilize the wood and help to
decrease the size of the holes a tiny amount. When new #7 bridge pins are driven
into these holes, they should fit snugly again without any danger of splitting the bridges
because they are too snug. The rest of the bridge I was able to drill out to take #8
bridge pins. The next step was to take a piece of glass covered in 100 grit sand
paper to plane the tops of the bridges so that they are totally flat and square. The
goal is to remove all the old string indentations and set the bridge up so that the
notches can be recut. By lowering the height of the bridges slightly with this
sanding operation, I cause the point that the holes intersect with the notches in the
bridge to become uneven. This is good. The way that the holes are drilled in
the bridges makes it possible to cut the tops surface down slightly like this and then
take a very sharp chisel and restate the notches so that they start exactly in the center
of the pin holes. Renotching will be the next step I take. Also, the sides of
the bridges have been sanded thoroughly. I usually don't like to bleach the bridges
unless they are heavily stained. The maple of the bridges doesn't turn orange like
the old sound board wood does when refinished. If I bleach the bridges, they will
become too white. If I just sand them well, they should have a warm, clean, new
maple color when done. I'm even willing to put up with minor and or hidden stains in
order to achieve this more natural color. Also, the old wood of these bridges will
hold up to the pins and string forces well. However, I don't really want to subject
it to water and bleaching solution because I'm afraid it might break down the fibers a
little and make it hard for me to get good clean notches later.
200) The restored bridges are sitting on the removed sound board.
201) Planing rib stock to match the original design of the sound board ribs (with a
few minor alterations in thickness to compensate for some factory errors and sloppiness.)
202) 
203) 
204) 
202) The ribs for this piano were planed at the same time
that I did the ribs for a Steinway upright also being restored in the shop. This
makes the work go faster.
203) Now the ribs (which are already the perfect width and a little too long) are
fitted into the case so that they fit the notches for the ribs in the rastin perfectly.
The goal is to fill up each notch completely with rib stock. Sadly, some of
the notches were cut sloppily by the factory and the ribs fitted very loosely in those
notches originally. Some of this flaw was corrected by making some of the ribs
slightly wider. Other parts of the flaws can be corrected by placing epoxy into any
inordinately large voids left in the notches. The factory just filled the voids with
hide glue but I don't feel that this is good enough since the hide glue isn't hard enough
or strong enough for filling of overly large voids. It is fine for use in filling up
slight voids here and there but that is all.
204) Aligning the treble bridge onto the ribs in its correct orientation so that the
ribs can be marked. The ribs get marked for where this bridge passes over them so
that I can shape them in such a way that the highest point in the arch of each rib is as
close to being directly under the long bridge as possible. This improves the tone
and durability of the sound board.
205) 
206) 
207) 
205) Using my shop made jig to shape the correct 60' arched
crown into the glue joint side of each rib.
206) Once the ribs have been crowned, each rib is laid next to its original and the
old sound board is bent to conform to the new rib. This bows the old rib and to a
smaller extent the new rib in such a way that I can exactly duplicate the profile of the
original rib onto the new one.
207) A photo showing the new ribs all ready to be glued to the new sound board.
The angle of the photo enables you to see the crown that has already been
established into the sound board before any gluing up has even started.
208) 
209) 
210) 
208) The legs and some other boards after receiving their
initial coats of lacquer.
209) A shot of some of the boards from this piano and other being sprayed in the
lacquer booth.
210) The action before work began on it. It was necessary to shift gears and
work on the action since Bolduc had
not yet delivered the sound board skin blanks I need to complete that phase of the
projects.
211) 
212) 
213) 
211) The first task was to refelt the let off rail.
The let off felts on this action were inordinately thick. This would have made it
difficult to stabalize the let off on this action. Therefore, I spend a great deal
of additional time, punching out special two part components for this action. The
under layer is of thick leather almost like you would find in the sole of a shoe.
This gives me much of the thickness I needed without any flex or give in it. Then a
layer of pre-compressed felt was stamped out and glued onto the leather after the leather
had been properly skived (cut and sanded) so that it would hold a good glue joint.
The felt allows the jack tendors to slide easily over the let off button and the leather
makes the entire thing more stable for a better touch and more reliable let off. The
previous design would have gone out of adjustment a lot as well as being quite different
in its setting between hard and soft blows.
212) The new Renner whippens have been installed. Also note that the action
brackets have been resurfaced for as new of a look as possible.
213) The new Renner shanks and flanges are in place on a new bed of sand paper to
keep them from moving. The jig is being used to travel each part to make sure they
all swing parallel to each other.
214) 
215) 
216) 
214) After the keys had been set aside for a while, those
ivories which had not already been reglued came loose. It would appear that this
keyboard was getting ready to let go of all its ivory before we ever saw the piano.
The customer has, in fact, received close to a thousand dollars worth of free ivory work
at this point because I hadn't quoted any such tasks in the plan and didn't want to ask
him to pay more after all he was already having done. If the piano had been mine, I
would probably have put on new plastic key tops. However, the customer greatly
desired to retain his ivory so I went out of my way to make that happen for him.
215) The back check leathers have been badly worn near the middle of this action.
Therefore, I'm releathering the entire set. I can buy new back checks from
Renner but I find it is usually better to releather the originals. I like to use a
different leather than Renner uses which I think catches the hammers better. Also,
the original wires and wood heads of the back checks are seated better into the keys than
the new ones will be once I've pulled out the originals and driven in the replacements.
216) The new leather has been glued to the back checks. Usually this job is
done with buckskin. However, I feel that this leather (which is referred to as
packing leather in the industry) serves better for back checks. It is firmer and the
nap is such that it hangs onto the tails of the hammer better. This leather can also
be used for knuckles and hammer butts on uprights if you're careful to select areas of the
skin which are finer in nap.