Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Members Recordings - Pianist Corner Haddorff Postcard No.7 with a couple of Scriabin Preludes

If you've been following all things Haddorff, you know that Bill Bremmer, RPT, was in the neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, started repairs, tuned my Haddorff, and gave me a couple of assignments (clean and replace keytops and clean the bass strings).

There is an unfortunate crack in the bridge, which means Haddie can't hold a tune in that region (D6) until the crack is repaired.



Also, hammer butt plates are breaking all over the place. Currently, F3, E4, and C#5, are the most noticeable, because they are all in the middle of the keyboard and used all of the time! A broken hammer butt plate results in a wobbly hammer that will not strike cleanly -- meaning low volume, no control of touch, and a notable clack.

The good news is, all of the clicking that was a result of loose ivories is gone! Now, all other noises are prominent!

So, here is the next episode:

Haddorff Postcard No.7

And a departure from the type of musical selections of late, two Scriabin Preludes:

Scriabin Prelude Op.11 No.9 (A piece that I previously recorded and posted when I played it on the "Mighty Lester." Here it is played on "Haddie," in all of her resonant glory!)

Scriabin Prelude Op.13 No.3

I picked these pieces to share with you because they really show the beauty of Bill's EBVT III temperament, and because they give you an idea of how this piano will shape up when all the repairs are done, and when it is properly regulated and voiced. You'll get the idea!...

Thanks for listening!

--Andy Strong

____________
Previous Haddorff Postcards:

Haddorff Postcard [No.1] with "Deep Purple"
Haddorff Postcard No.2 with "I Love Her"
Haddorff Postcard No.3 with "Yes, Sir! That's My Baby"
Haddorff Postcard No.4 with "Mistress Murphy's Chowder"
Haddorff Postcard No.5 with "All Alone"
Haddorff - (no postcard) with "He Wipes The Tear From Every Eye" played on the Haddorff
Haddorff Postcard No.6 with "Constantinople"
Haddorff Pictures (no postcard, yet)

Nice Andy,

Man, couldn't you sleep this morning or what? 04:46 AM. Holy crap! Zzzzzzzzzzz

Go Haddie Go !!!

He/she is well on his/her way to sounding terrific again.

Some clever dialog in this episode as well.

Just curious - where do you find butt plates for a 107 year old piano? Or are butt plates fairly standard from make to make??

Sleep, Jer? What is this thing you call...sleep?

Carey, I am absolutely the wrong person to ask about hammer butt plates, but I'll tell you what little I know from observation...

Please excuse the "global" round-a-bout answer:

When I did my searching to order some on the Internet, I found a site that completely resonated with my sense of fun (and a few other personal values as well). It is called "Piano Owner's Survival Guide" and it is laced with humor, along with selling all sorts of teeny tiny doodads that you can't get at just any hardware store!

"Piano Owner's Survival Guide" at www.balaams-ass.com/piano/piano.htm

I looked in the section for Upright Piano Action Parts, and there are two kinds of butt plates. 1) Normal (I guess you would say), and, 2) specific to old Kimballs. I found them cheaper elsewhere, but I liked the website's attitude so much, I bought 2 doz. from them. I will need many, many more than that, but I thought I'd get started there.

So that is "Answer Part 1" to your question about whether they are standard.

"Answer Part 2" is this: I watched Bill Bremmer like a hawk while he was here, and while I could not see everything he was doing, I saw enough to catch the drift. Bill had a baggie full of butt plates and a baggie full of screws. He would take a butt plate, put it in a needle nose vise grips, then take his Dremmel tool fitted with a grinding cylinder and round the edges of the butt plate before putting it in place. He said too often, you have to do that anyway, so better just to do it right away. He said he used to file them off by hand, but when he was doing a big job with many butt plates, he got wise and bought the Dremmel!

So, the answer to your question, "Are butt plates fairly standard from make to make?" -- is -- "I don't know, but I think so, kinda sorta."

Remember, I am not an expert, but I play one on Piano World! Thank you, fellow life-long learner, for joining me on the road of discovery!

Very cool, as usual!
Have you thought of putting them all on a CD? It would be a very original, extremely nice CD!

Funny you should say that, CA... I did compile the ones with un-tuned RBFT Haddie on a CD to share with some friends. We can call it Vol. 1! EBVT III Haddie will be Vol. 2!

It really is interesting, because when the postcards and musical selections track one after the other, like CDs do..., it gives a really good sense of the developing story. Unfortunately, you miss the thread comments, from which some of the story derives. Ah, well...

Maybe I'll put them all together in one boxnet folder and you can download them from there and make your own CD... I'll even put the liner notes there. Of course, you are welcome to download them from the thread pages, too!

That is great, thanks!

Hey, CA (and all other Haddorff Postcard buddies)--

I put Haddorff Postcards Nos.1-6 (Vol.1) in their own convenient boxnet folder so that you can download them and burn them onto a CD if you wish. There is also a Word document of "liner notes" that I made to use when I share the CD with friends. You can print it out to wrap it around your CD if you wish.

Haddorff Postcards (Vol.1)

Help yourself!

--Andy

P.S. I know everyone has their own way of doing things, but here is how I wrap my CDs in their "liner notes." Cheap but serviceable. (I'm not sophisticated enough to make liner notes in a jewel case format... plus, with MP3 players, does anyone even use liner notes anymore??? *fogey alert!*fogey alert!*)

FRONT:




BACK:

Heh - very nice postcard, Andy!
It looks like you left the piano in a "Hmmph"! state-of-mind by the end of the episode.
Very funny, as usual.

I hope you don't get into too much trouble changing those butt-plates!

Andy, I don't understand nothing about these crack issues. So, I'm curious whether there is a solution to Haddy or not.

Is it possible to repair those cracks and Haddy get healthy again?

Or it is like a structural problem that is only possible to solve if you practicaly build another piano on top of it, or spend a lot of money?

cheers dude

Hey, al-mahed! Not to worry! Here's what Bill said about it, via PM. Since he is a true educator at heart, I am supposing he won't mind me sharing it out here in public!



The last sentence means I am going to let him handle that one! Bill knew something was wrong with that part of the piano when he was tuning it because he couldn't get it to stay in place. I hadn't cleaned that part of the piano before his visit, though, and the crack became visible when I sucked and blew and wiped all of the dust out. When I found the crack, I promply sent him the picture, and said, "Is this why?"

It seems that there are few problems on pianos that cannot ultimately be fixed. There are people so skilled at it that they actually fashion teeny tiny wooden parts (and big gigantic wooden parts, and metal parts, and felt parts...!) custom made to your piano! Apparently, the universe is much bigger than I suspected!

Indeed, I believe Haddie will be quite healthy when all is said and done! She has potential to become a *fine* piano!

--Andy

Me, too, Mattardo! But, I figure every time I take the action out and put it back in, I'll get better at it. The problem is, each time I do that, I also have to practice being very, very careful because there's also the potential to break stuff! Eeek! Tim Allen meets Piano World!

Hi Cinnamon, I had not heard these particular preludes by Scriabin before. They sound beautiful and gentle for Scriabin. Well played! I know almost nothing of accoustics and the brands you talk about, but this piano sounds really warm.

Thank you very much, babama. That means a lot to me coming from you, since I know how much heart and finesse you put into your own rendition of the Scriabin Etude 8/5 you posted not too long ago. Thank you for listening!

CA glue? OK, I will be happy to help... Just kidding, I know what it is...
I am glad it is only a minor repair though and that Haddy is otherwise in good health.

Hello Haddie! from one of The Nice Folks at Piano World

And thank you for that bit of Joplin, I love listening to it on Haddie - I am transported to another world.