Restoration of a Steinway Duo-Art Reproducing Grand for the Schlieter Family
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1) The piano is on its side and all of the components have been labeled.
2) The first component has been removed. (The pump) Here the pumping
pneumatics have been stripped of their old cloth. The flap valves and hinges have
been carefully gone through. The pneumatics are now ready to be recovered.
3) Placing new heavy bellows cloth onto one of the pumping pneumatics.
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4) The pump is being reassembled. All of the bearings have been dismantled,
restored, packed with new grease and regulated. One of the new gaskets (white
leather) can be seen in this photo. The gaskets are coated with shellac and then the
pump quickly reassembled. The exterior mounting plates are used to keep the
pneumatics in exactly their original orientation and position.
5) All of the pneumatics are now reassembled.
6) Here, the pump is totally reassembled, including the electric motor which has
also been gone over. The picture shows the piece being tested with one of the
original leather belts. A new belt was purchased for the pump the next day after
this picture was taken.
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7) The modulator is being taken apart and the parts labeled.
8) This picture show just how many parts are in the modulator. It is very
important to keep these parts labeled as it would prolong the time for rebuilding the unit
extensively if the parts were lost track of.
9) The Modulator's components have all been rebuilt and the unit is ready to be
reassembled.
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10 - 11) The reassembled Modulator. This camera makes the exterior plated
hardware look good even in its original state. However, this hardware was in very
dingy condition. All of these components have been carefully polished.
12) This is a before picture of the expression device. You can see that the
rear of the unit appears to have something missing... In fact, the device that
controls the dynamic level of the music has (as usual) disintegrated since the factory
originally covered these devices with pouch leather which disintegrates leaving the
devices (called Accordion Pneumatics) in a heap. In the case of this piano, some of
the parts to the accordion pneumatics were scattered around in strange places under the
piano as well. Fortunately, the parts were still present.
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13) Another picture of the expression unit before rebuilding.
14) The core of the expression unit, called the expression box, had to be cracked
open in order to replace the large pouches inside the unit. When gluing this box
back together a thin layer of leather was laid in the joint to make future restorations
more easily done and safer for the expression box itself.
15) The many parts of the accordion pneumatics have been gathered together and their
locations and orientation established and marked. Here, you see all the parts
cleaned up and ready to be recovered. This time, it will be covered with very thin
pneumatic cloth to make the pneumatics more stable and longer lived.
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16) The Accordions have been recovered and reassembled into their carriages.
Now the travel of the accordions is being set to establish the dynamic changes that they
will create.
17) Here, you can see the expression box after being restored and glued back
together. You can see the joint that now contains the leather gasket. By
looking at the complexity of the inner walls, it becomes obvious how complex this gasket
had to be. This box has been sanded free of all the original black paint so that the
wood joints could be exposed in order to be able to split the box apart.
18) Looking down inside the expression box, you can see the pouches inside that had
to be replaced. On the right side, you can see red felt dots that are attached to
flap valves that were also replaced.
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19) This is a before picture of the valve box that controls
the accordion pneumatics and thence the volume of the playing.
20) The same box after restoration. The pouches on this device were in
remarkably bad condition. Some of them had rotted right off of the wood.
21 - 23) Pictures of the completed expression device. The only thing yet to do
is to test and regulate the unit on the bench before reinstallation.
24) The wind motor governor dismantled and ready for restoration. This unit,
too, has a very large number of parts.
