Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum DIY upright bridge repair + restring

Eventually I'd like to restring the entire piano, but I'm on a tight budget and short leash from my wife. I also want to make a series of small progressions before spending more $. I already have the parts I think I need to restore the action and keyboard. For the most part, time is my friend on this. If suddenly she sees me pouring a lot of money into this project, ie. lots of new parts showing up my wife is going to make life difficult. I'm forced to fund my hobbies doing things like weekend blacksmithing & welding, how I financed my truck's restoration. She feels like any extra should go towards bills (part of which already does).

At least for now, taking something that was headed for the junkyard that not only I got for free but the previous owner paid the entire moving costs then turning it into one that plays and the family can enjoy is my goal. Rebuilding the action is going to take some doing. I also want to see the results of doing a CA treatment. The treble tuning pins seem to hold well, but the bass ones turn very easily. Compared to an engine or transmission, this is easy to disassemble & reassemble. That would all change if I needed to remove the plate to get to the sound board or pinblock.

as it is an old player system you will have a playable piano, but the keys are too long to provide a good control on the action.

that may be can be helped with a "Touchrail" or similar idea (helping the keys to raise back.
still there is a little flexing in the keys that is not ideal.

Mechanically that is not sooo difiicult but chances are that you find the job boring.

Then there are also a huge pile of details that make the job eficient.

Perhaps it will be boring at times, right now not so much as I have lots to learn. So far it's been perfect in the evening when the kids are asleep. Time constraints, not able to make a lot of noise, get dirty etc. limits blacksmithing, welding, auto work. I can tinker with this for an hour or less and then stop.

Looks like the touchrail essentially replaces the keystop, nice idea I would've never thought of that. My ability to play piano is an intermediate level at best. I do like the fact that this piano has a mute strip and the option to decrease the distance of the hammers to the strings. Many times when I have the opportunity to play it's either early morning or late at night which has been an advantage with the digital we have.

The big expense in restringing a piano is the bass strings. If you buy tuning pins by the dozen, they are more expensive than by the set. The bass strings cost more than the piano wire for the rest of the piano. It really does not make sense just to replace the bass strings.

For now though I not planning on restringing the piano, including the bass section. I know you're right that it would make a big difference in sound quality, but for now it will have to wait. Plan is to leave them attached to the tuning pins and move them out of the way so I can replace the bridge and repair the apron. Last night I reduced the tension on all of the strings, bass & treble as detailed in Reblitz's book. I was surprised that the majority of tuning pins required at least 50" lbs, some were closer to 75. Then a few bass pins are ~25. From what I've read on doing the CA treatment you treat all the pins?

Olek said "The apron is extreme on that piano. It add a lot of suppleness to the bridge,(unfortunately the pressure is almost in grain direction) that mean lowers the power but with so long strings it can be an advantage.

Smaller aprons are cut to lower rigidity, usually.
Curved shaped bridges add stability."

So the large or thick apron causes the bridge to flex more. When cutting a new bass bridge you want the woodgrain to go in the direction of the press, correct otherwise I think it would be more rigid but more likely to crack?

Is the reason the treble bridges are curved for stability, sound quality or both? I'm glad those are in good condition.