Restoration of a Mason & Hamlin Ampico for David Lucas Graves & John Herrmann
337) 
338) 
339) 
340)
337) This photo and the next show
the restored music rack guide rails after they were installed.
338) ...
339) The piano is now on its side ready to have the
player mechanisms reinstalled.
340)
341) 
342) 
343) 
341) Pulling the mounting housings off the motor so that the
oil wells can be refilled. This motor was dry as a bone and took a handsome amount
of oil to even begin to make it right again. The rest of the motor's condition was
such that cleaning was all that was called for. A new lead off the motor could have
been done but that is an expensive job and the motor's condition really doesn't warrant
it.
342) One thing that did have to be done was the rebushing of these boards
which hold the bars on which the motor is mounted. The original felt was very sloppy
and could have caused trouble with the motor remaining properly oriented, causing belt
damage or slip offs.
343) The drawer has been installed and now it is time to start running
tubing.
344) 
345) 
346) 
344) The tubes running at the top between the drawer and the
rest of the piano are actually filled with springs inside. This way, they can be
bent severely (as when one closes the drawer) without being pinched shut. These
three tubes are the entire suction supply for everything inside the drawer.
345) The expression lines have been run from the spider to the
expression cut out array and from thence to the numerous expression mechanisms.
346) The tubing which runs from the drawer to the "spider" which
is an assembly of brass tubes which carry the signals to the back of the system in such a
way as to avoid interfering with the pneumatic stack lifter wires is in place. More
about this run of tubing shortly.
347) 
348) 
349) 
347) All the tubing from the tracker bar through the various
paths to the primary valves is complete.
348) Upon careful examination, you will see that each tubing run in
this photo contains an elbow near its middle. These elbows are critical if you want
the tubes to stay functional when the drawer is closed and also to prevent the tubes from
trying to force the drawer back open. When the piano came to me, the last person to
replace this tubing had snagged these elbows (as they are costly) or the elbows had been
lost because the tubing had crumbled and the elbows were swept up and thrown away with the
fragments of old tubes. I had to put together an entire new set of elbows in order
to keep this set up correct. Many haphazard rebuilders I have seen over the years
have tubed up this area without the elbows. It works fine as long as you leave the
drawer open which is how (I think) they get away with such nonsense. The Ampico
player mechanism was designed to function with the drawer open or closed as the user saw
fit. The installation of these elbows isn't included in my contracts since they
should normally be present as long as the piano is original and nobody has tampered with
it.
349) Another example of needing to replace a missing part. The treble
and bass main suction lines are always "T"ed with a special fixture with a wide
bore for the main suction and a smaller arm off the "T" running to the
equalizer. The unit only had one of the two "T" fixtures needed.
Here, you see how I have taken brass tubing of the appropriate diameters, drilled it,
ground it and soldered it into an appropriately dimensioned "T" to take the
place of the missing part.
350) 
351) 
352) 
350) The guide rail for the pneumatic stack's poppets has
been installed and can be seen through the slot since it is back lit in the photo.
These rails were rebushed on page two. Again, work which had not been called for in
the contract since such work is seldom needed. The poppet rails are usually just
fine.
351) A shot of the poppet rail from inside the piano.
352) A shot of the poppet rail after the pneumatic stack had been installed
so that the poppet heads are poking through the rail; making them visible from this angle.
353) 
354) 
355) 
353) The pneumatic stack is in place and the tubing has been
run from the primary valve chest to the valves on the stack.
354) These are scans that I made of stickers that many pianos come with.
I cleaned these up on the computer and then had them printed on paper of the
original weight and gloss as the original. The emblems on this piano seemed OK until
I started to wipe off some dust around them. Then I discovered that they were
starting to crumble. I know of nowhere that these stickers can be
purchased. I'm the only person I know of who has these in their possession for
replacement on pianos.
355) The stickers for this piano with the appropriate serial numbers are now
glued onto the stack cover in the appropriate place. It is worth noting at this
point that the way this stack cover was held in place was awful. In order to remove
the cover for regulation and servicing of the stack, you had to remove a bolt in the
treble which caused the entire stack to become loose at that end. I eliminated the
wood in that area and installed a different system for holding the cover along with adding
a number of metal angled holders to keep the cover solid. The belly cloth snaps onto
the back of this cover so it must be solid and stable or trouble is bound to ensue.
356) 
357) 
358) 
356) The primary electrical junction. The way this unit
is made, the main power comes into a box and is wired to the internal fixture. The
motor plugs into one side and a line runs from the other side to a second fixture which
permits you to unplug the drawer if you should need to remove it for any reason.
After it passes the second junction (picture to follow) then it passes to the on/off
switch.
357) The primary junction is mounted and plugged in. Normally
the box on an Ampico is set up so that the power cord passes through a hole in the belly
cloth and plugs into the junction. The rest of the wiring is "hard wired."
We are missing the plug in associated with this feature because it was detachable.
Therefore, I used what I had at my disposal to keep the fixtures looking as
authentic as I was able. The power cord is hard wired and not removable but at least
it will never get lost.
358) This is the secondary junction where the drawer plugs into the wiring
buss. As you see, I was able to use authentic original wire fixtures here after
having cleaned them, installed new wire and new paper face plate covers.
359) 
360) 
361) 
359) Another touch which these pianos came from the factory
with but which they often leave a rebuilders without. The tubing that passes from
the drawer to the "spider" is covered with panels of heavy vinyl cloth with
snaps into place. The snaps from the original installation are still present and
functional but the cloth covers are long gone and most rebuilders these days don't seem to
know that they're expected to replace them.
360) The new belt installed onto the motor and pump. It was rather
difficult to get a belt that would make the trip around this motor and around the pump.
But after I got to thinking and looking a little harder, I realized my problem.
Somebody had come along at a point when the system was starting to leak so badly
that the function was going out. They took the factory original pulley off of the
motor and installed a larger one. This caused the system to spin the pump faster,
thus creating more suction. It can't be left that way or the rebuilt pump will bog
down and burn up the motor. Fortunately, I had an authentic Ampico A motor pulley in
stock which I was able to install onto the motor.
361) You can see the replacement pulley here. Also, upon installing
the belly cloth and check for clearance, I discovered that something was missing.
The motor and part of the pump wheel were dragging on the belly cloth. Either Mason
and Hamlin put in a very sloppy cloth and counted on gravity to keep the cover off the
moving parts or somebody walked off with part of the piano's stand offs. I made one
new stand off over the motor using an old music rack guide rail from an old Knabe grand
which had to have modern rails installed.
362) 
363) 
364) 
362) After installing the belly cloth again, I found that it
was still dragging on the pump wheel.
363) This is an old pump that has gotten wet and is destroyed.
However, the bars that hold the belly cloth off of the pump wheel are still useable.
I had to soak the screws with WD-40 and use some patience to get one of these rails
off. But I got it, cleaned it up thoroughly on the wire brush and installed it onto
our current pump. This put the final touch on keeping the belly cloth off of the
moving parts.
364) This picture shows the decorative drawer cover board that fits to the
front face of the drawer. I didn't want to install it until all the other work was
done to make sure no accidents caused it to get bumped or scratched.
365) 
366) 
367) 
365) The piano is back on its feet; ready to receive the rest
of the work of action installation and regulation. The light is visible at the end
of this tunnel!
366) This photo shows a white strip of felt which used to occupy the left
bumper rail. This rail enable you to shift the action with the Una Corda pedal and
return it without making noise. It also prevented buzzing noises of the action
against wood and it keeps the location of the action correct to align it with the strings
and damper system. The old felt was partially moth eaten and filthy. I removed
it by reversing the hide glue that held it in place and glued a new strip of equal
thickness felt custom cut for the job.
367) Although the hammers for this piano came from Isaac Piano already
drilled, it was still necessary to go through each hammer one at a time and use a reamer
to adjust the hole to fit each shank just right. Without the fit being loose enough,
the hammer will be impossible to get into position when the wood receives glue and begins
to expand from the moisture in said glue. Yet, it must not be so loose that the
hammer might tend to drift out of position after you have moved onto its neighboring
hammers.
368) 
369) 
370) 
368) I was trained to hang hammers and travel shanks and
flanges Renner style. However, I have developed my own combination system which
works better for me and for which I am more comfortable. My method probably takes me
longer but I know that my finished product will be predictably correct. Renner
doesn't adjust the movement (called "travel") of the shanks and flanges until
after the hammers are mounted. A swing test after each hammer is glued shows you
what angle to set the hammer at in order to have it square to the shanks motion.
Then the traveling job can be done by simply using shims to tilt the shanks until all the
hammers are even. I prefer to go though the action with a square and travel each
shank before mounting the hammers. That is what I am doing in this photo.
369) Before a section of hammers can be mounted, sample hammers from the
original installation have to be put back on the action and marked for exact
center/striking point. Two new hammers are installed and glued into place next to
them. Their correct position is checked with squares, travel testing (which compares
the angle of the new hammer to the original guide hammer. I then let the guide
hammers sit at least one hour in the jig before proceeding to ensure that they are solid
enough that no movement could possibly occur in the new guide hammers. Before
proceeding, the old guides are removed and their new shanks put in their place. The
travel of those shanks is double checked and then we're ready to hang the section.
370) The bass section all mounted. I, again, like to leave the hammers
untouched in the jig for at least an hour before I take them out of the fixture in order
to move to the next section. Incidentally, I use hot hide glue for mounting all
hammers at all times.
371) 
372) 
373) 
371) The entire set of hammers in in place.
372) After mounting the hammers onto new shanks, there is always a certain
amount of excess shank which sticks out beyond the hammer. This must come off or the
hammer will jam against the back checks on the keys. Many rebuilders simply use a
hand saw and hold the hammer firmly while they saw this part off without removing the
shank. I prefer to remove the entire hammer and cut the shank excess off on a scroll
saw then replace the hammer/shank. This is more work but it prevents any chance of
over-stressing the flanges.
373) The excess shanks are all trimmed off and the hammers temporarily
spaced. Much more fine spacing will be done when the action stack can be mated to
the piano strings which will have to wait until after I've pre-regulated the lifter
poppets and then leveled the keys.
374) 
375) 
376) 
374) Before the keys can be leveled or any other regulations
performed, the key frame must be securely seated on the key bed. The key bed is the
heavy wooden "table" which the action rests upon. In this photo, I have
satisfied myself that the dags (hold downs at the rear of the action) and the front rail
are all well seated. The last thing to adjust is the glides that run under the
center rail. These are set by sliding a piece of paper under the glide and then
lowering the glide until the paper is pinned down. Then you loosen the glide just
until the paper can slide out with moderate pulling. This guarantees that the action
will be seated well and will not knock or be thrown out of adjustment because the glides
aren't sitting equally on the key bed clear across the action. I do this adjustment
while I have as many artificially weighted keys in place as possible to simulate the
actual weight of the action on the glides.
375) Action regulation is a lot like refinishing. The first step you
take is the most important if you want the subsequent operations to be successful.
Now that the action is seated, I can level the keys. This piano is a
"pre-Aeolian acquisition" piece. The book calls for a key height which
will work but is just a bit low for this piano to work at its best. I chose to use
the altered dimensions which were instituted when Aeolian took over Mason & Hamlin.
In addition, the center of the keyboard is set to be about 1/16" to 1/8"
higher in the middle than at the ends. All of these regulation settings are going to
be exercised heavily as soon as they are completed so the keys will be leveled once more
later. I suspect that the raised center (which is standard regulating procedure)
will be just about right with only needs for touch up work the second time around.
376) Once the keys are leveled and spaced, then the action stack is screwed
into place and the job of alignment begins. First step is to "travel" all
the shanks and flanges. I have already shown that part of the job. Alignment
of parts is next. With the action in the piano and the damper heads still on the
bench, I can readily see to align each hammer to its strings. Any discrepancies
which show up are due to a mistake in traveling, in string placement, or in hammer
hanging. What few discrepancies I encountered were corrected and the shanks and
hammers were ready to go.
377) 
378) 
379) 
377) The next step is to adjust the whippens. First,
each whippen top is set to sit exactly under each hammer shank's knuckle. After that
setting is in place, a look underneath at where the whippen meets the key's capstan screw
reveals offset whippens that don't meet the capstan dead center. These can only be
corrected by removing them and using travel tape to adjust their orientation as was done
with the shanks and flanges. The photo shows that the whippens are now set as good
as this action will permit.
378) The damper heads as the old felts were being soaked with water in order
to reverse the glue that holds them. A red arrow shows one of a set of four dampers
that mated with the four lowest bichords in the bass. The strings on those notes are
so fat that a normal bichord damper felt will not stop them from vibrating. Mason
& Hamlin had special felt with a fairly dense consistency specially cut for these
strings as seen in the photo. I spent an entire day and a half working out how to
replicate this effect when I could not acquire the felts originally used and hand made
felts proved unsatisfactory. I eventually came up with a system that used Japanese
specialty upright damper felts to do the job. In addition, I had to make special
stand-offs for the entire piano because this piano is equipped with what we call trichord
felt almost through the entire treble. Modern block felts for the treble are made
too thickly to be able to meet the string at the same time with the trichords.
Therefore, the trichords all had to be glued to wooden risers that would even them up with
the mated blocks. The damping system is a good one but it took a great deal of
specialty work to bring it together because it is so "non-standard."
379) Letting the wood of the damper heads dry out after the felt was
removed. When the glue has softened enough, I pull the felt off and then immediately
take a knife and scrape all residue off and then wipe away all moisture and remaining glue
with a rag. Then the heads are set out to dry as quickly as possible so as not to
effect the wood.
380) 
381) 
382) 
380) Same thing from another angle.
381) The wires on the dampers have now been polished. As usual, these
were nickel plated brass wires and corrosion had eliminated the nickel completely.
Since brass is prone to tarnish, a dilute solution of lacquer was applied to each wire to
prevent corrosion. The reason for using a dilute solution is to prevent drips of
hardened lacquer from forming as well as preventing dust from settling on the metal.
382) Most pianos which are veneered in mahogany have either mahogany or
black damper heads. This shows the heads after I polished them smooth and waxed them
to a soft gloss. This picture along with the next two show the wood of these damper
heads. There are a number of species that could look like the wood here. Only
an expert with a microscope could confirm the species beyond doubt. However, it is
my professional judgement that these damper heads are made of Rosewood; probably Cocobolo
but also other rosewoods can look like this if you find the right piece. Whatever
species it is, they used a very ornate and rare piece of wood to create these damper
heads.
383) 
384) 
385) 
383) A scan of the side of one damper head. You can
even see the saw marks where they cut them apart. The grain looks very much like
Rosewood to me.
384) The way damper heads are made is to take a board and cut it into
sections and glue them up so that the grain is running the short way of the board.
Then the board is tapered and run the a shaper. Once the profile is established, the
board is filled, finished and rubbed out. Finally, the individual heads are cut off
the board on a saw and drilling operations performed individually to made way for the
lifter wires. You can see in this photo how the grain matches up from one damper to
the next. The grain, as you can see in this photo, is glorious. It's a
positive shame to put a music rack over top of them.
385) Part of the work I went through to get the lowest four bichords to damp
without having access to the old style Mason felt. I added additional lubricant in
the spring grooves of the damper underlevers and then installed a second spring to pull
the damper felt down more firmly.
386) 
387) 
388) 
386) All of these felts were hand cut off of strips of felt
in order to custom fit them to this piano.
387) The up-stop rails for the dampers hardly ever need attention.
However, in the case of this piano, I had to spend some hours in cleaning off the moth
eaten felt and then custom cutting replacement felts. Normally a few bits of felt
are no big deal to cut, but these require a long strip that is quite thick and quite thin;
very difficult to cut properly. I had to throw away the first batch after gluing it
on because I was not satisfied with the results.
388) The dampers heads have been felted. This system
required, as I mentioned before, a system of damping felts which are only found amongst
the very best pianos. Even Steinways are often found without such elaborate felt.
Some of the material I needed doesn't even exist on the open market any more.
I had to make my own. It easily took me three days to do a job that usually
runs me about four hours. This photo also shows where Mason & Hamlin pieced
different Rosewood boards into the damper head blank during manufacture. It is often
impossible to see that a piece of unfinished wood is not going to take stain and finish
the same way as another. They often look exactly alike in the raw. So Mason
& Hamlin can't be blamed too badly for this honest mistake.
389) 
390) 
391) 
389) This photo shows me regulating the "Poppets"
to the backs of the keys. By using a piece of paper, I can feel how tightly the key
is resting on the back rail felt and how well it is resting on the poppet. In case
you have forgotten, the poppet is a wooden dowel threaded onto a metal wire that transfers
the action of the pneumatic stack to the keyboard. The poppets need to have a
minimal amount of lost motion between them and the felt at the backs of the keys.
Since I had to replace all that felt with a similar, firm yet compressible felt, I set the
poppets so that they had no lost motion at all. I tried to arrange it so that there
was equal tension. The key rested on the back rail felt with as much pressure as it
rested on the poppet. After playing the action in for a while, the lost motion we
want should pound itself into place. This will save the owner the need to hire a
technician to come in and readjust the lost motion so as to perfect repetition and
pianissimo play.
390) This is a mechanism similar to one used in the better piano factories.
It built by me but serves the purpose very well without causing any chaffing to
keytops or cabinet. The mechanism is attached to a suction supply and is governed by
a pallet valve which is attached to the movable board of the big beater which is mounted
to the piano. After each attack of the beater pneumatic, the system is signaled to
back off and release pressure. Once the pneumatic is open enough for another blow,
the system is signaled to "hit her again." The set up is adjusted to cause
all 88 notes to play at forte (not fortissimo just forte) 80 times per minute.
This allows all the action centers to work in, it compresses felt and leather
throughout the system, it packs down the key bed felts and also works the strings and
hammers to settle in mating surfaces, helping them straighten and stretch as needed and
mold to their other parts. Once this machine has had 20 to 40 hours to exercise the
action, a fresh job of regulating and tuning can be performed with a reasonable
expectation that the final touch ups will stay right where you put them for a reasonable
period of time.
391) The beater mechanism from another angle. After
completing the work of "pounding in" the action, I ran an estimate. The
results were that all 88 notes were subjected to 144,000 forte repetitions by the machine.
Yet, the work I did to stabilize the felts and so forth resulted in a finished
"burned in" action that was not very far off the correct settings.
392) 
393) 
394) 
392) During the testing phases on the pneumatic system, all was going
well and the drawer components were all operating as they should with a minor adjustment
or two having been made. Then, suddenly, the wind motor started running very fast
and yet there was no motion in the roll. As it turns out, the gear which has an
arrow pointing to it in the photo lost its "ginger" during the testing.
This gear is press fitted onto a shaft which has a spline. The shaft is steel but
the gear is brass and it became useless. Happily, I have a "parts" Ampico
A I keep in the basement. And the transmission of that mechanism still possessed
this gear and in good condition. So I swapped out the gears on them just as I had
done earlier with the electric motor pulley which had been the wrong one when it was sent
to me.
393) Some photos of the finished product follow...
394) ...
395) 
396) 
395) ...
396) A challenging restoration in many respects which took longer than we had hoped
as I had other tasks which demanded my attention during the rebuild. But she is
finally finished and sounds and looks very beautiful.
© Copyright 2010 {David Rodgers' Piano Rebuilding}. All Rights Reserved.