Rebuilding a 1915 Schomacker
Grand Piano
See the bottom of this page for thumbnails of the
pictures - click on the number of each step to go directly to the picture it describes:
1) A view of a Schomacker grand coming in for restoration showing the inside of the cargo trailer.
2) The piano arrives in the shop. Note that this brand of piano originally made use of gold plated strings which is easily seen in this picture. My shop has the capability for plating piano wire in gold once again for those of you who may wish to take advantage of this option.
3) The piano is set up and ready for work to begin.
4) The dampers have been removed and stored in order.
5) Careful measurements of sound board crown, down bearing, pin block and plate height as well string lengths and sizes. After all the data has been recorded the scale of the piano will be calculated on the computer. Pianos have been scaled for many many years by trial and error. The maker would simply try different sizes and wraps of wire until he came up with what he considered the best sounding result. Depending on the maker, the tonal result of this type of scaling was more or less successful. For instance, Steinway was very thorough in their scaling work with the result being that they generally have very excellent scales throughout. However, most pianos can be made to sound better than they did even from the factory with a freshly done scale.
Note: For those of you who wish to have your pianos rescaled, I offer a rescaling service. Please contact me for information on how to make that happen. I will provide you with a redesigned scale that will maximize the potential of your piano as well as making for the most even voicing possible. Along with the redesigned treble strings, I can send you custom made bass strings which are designed to be perfect for your piano. These bass strings are designed by myself and custom made by Ari Isaac the foremost string maker in the world at this time, in my opinion. I have coordinated the design and production of strings with Mr. Isaac, who works with me and receives input from me on piano string production.
6) Removing the tuning pins.
7) Measuring down bearing. This means the measuring of how far the bridges of the piano deflect the strings. If too much upward deflection occurs then the pianos tone will become short sustained, brittle and harsh. With too little bearing the piano will have more sustain but no power and no ability to carry the sound to the back of a room.
8) As the plate screws are removed they are stored in a way that preserves the orientation in which they were originally placed in the piano. This doesn't matter much when installing a new pin block but there can be slight differences in diameter and thread cut from one screw to the next so it is a good idea to keep them in order so that all screws that are going back into an original, unaltered hole will fit that hole completely. If a screw that was slightly smaller or larger or otherwise different were placed into one of the holes in the pianos rim, it could damage the condition of the wood.
9) Here a template is being made that will assist me in locating the new pin block when it is shaped and fitted to the piano. The height of the plate is also carefully taken so that the pin block and plate can be restored to their correct height.
Pictures: Click the thumbnails to see the full sized picture. Then click the back button on your browser to return to this page.
1) 
2) 
3)
4) 
5) 
6) 
7) 
8) 
9) 
© Copyright 2010 {David Rodgers' Piano Rebuilding}. All Rights Reserved.