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I recently had the pleasure of repairing an action on a square grand. The hammers and some of the key frme felt had been replaced by another tech. The action needs minor regulation.

In all fairness, this "Linderman and Sons" has been refinished very well and over all is in exceptional condition. All wood joints are tight, soundboard, pinblock and bridges excellent. New strings and oversized pins. etc.

I am looking for anyone who has a good amount of time working on these to perhaps share with me some tips/tricks for expediting the regulaltion.

I would like to present ahead of time to the customer the best reasonable perspective.

There appears to be some missing damper pieces in the bass section, an extra added felt to help dampen the longer, heavier string. Many of these "extra" pieces are missing. I am curious anout finding replacement pieces or perhaps what would be considere suitable replacement parts.

Thank You in advance for your time and consideration.

May God be with you. The best advice I will give is this: make sure that they understand that it will in no way resemble what they expect a modern piano to sound or perform like. Put it in writing.

There are people who specialize in square grands. I have tuned one, but have done no action work. The one I worked on was a Steinway that had been tuned to 440, but was built to be tuned to 435. When I brought it down to proper pitch, it had a really sweet sound. I think I used a Broadwood's Best temperament, courtesy of Tunelab.

The person to talk to is Joe Garrett. His e-mail is Joegarrett@earthlink.net. He specializes in old pianos like this, and he can fabricate parts. He made some custom parts for me once after an old upright action broke loose from the hammer rail I was carrying it by--ouch! T'weren't cheap, but the parts came out great!

Good luck,

Dave Stahl

Good Morning Dave and Sam,

Thanks for the input.

Agreed Sam, that was the first order of business (acronym FOB ?)

I am in the process of emailing Joe Garrett. Thanks Dave.

One of the reasons you find weight added to damper heads is because the damper wire has rust or corrosion on it AND (this is important) The damper guide bushing is long in for some dampers. The holes go THROUGH the plate. and the drilled holes are bushed. Sometimes the holes are as much as 1 1/2 inch long. That is a lot of room for something to go wrong. Pull the damper out and polish the wire. The ease the felt bushing . I use a wire the same size as the hole. I then heat it and ease it with the hot wire.