Previous Projects

Restored on Contract

51" W. Biese Upright #10503

Exotic Walnut Cabinet. Built in 1879. Restored by Ray's Piano Service in 2007.

IMPROVEMENTS:

Restring—Dismantle. Remove pins and strings. Restring & Repin. Refinish soundboard.

Recondition action—Install new hammers, dampers, tighten all screws, replace defective parts.

Complete Regulation—All adjustments to ensure that piano plays like new, tune to A-440, tune. Some cabinet repair. Reassemble

SCHEDULE:

Pick Up—August 12, 2007, from Edmonds, WA.

Restoration Work Completed--September-November, 2007

Delivered—November 17, 2007

W. Biese Upright #10503 - "BEFORE"

W. Biese Upright #10503
Pictures of the Improvement Process
taken in our shop:

1 – This piano has a truly elegant handcrafted cabinet.

2 – The details of the manufacturer in Berlin, Germany, are clearly printed on the pinblock.

3 – This piano is a "birdcage" design, but it plays extraordinarily well considering its limitations. It's well worth restoring.

4 – The bass bridge and strings are arranged parallel to the treble strings to help distribute the tension along the full width of the plate.

5 – This piano's unique design permitted removal of the entire action including keys, keyframe, hammers, and damper mechanism, with the removal of two screws.

6 – With the action removed, we placed the piano on its back on our "upright piano tilter." We will next remove the keybed and legs, and then destring the piano.

7 – Close-up of treble strings at hitch pins--these are tied individually. We will follow the same pattern in restringing.

8 – The bass strings are also tied individually onto the hitch pins, and the bass bridge has a single pin for each single string.

9 – All strings are forced downward by two pressure bars, ensuring uniform termination points for clear string vibrations.

10 – We removed all strings and pins, and we sent the bass strings to the string-maker for duplication.

11 – We removed the plate. This plate design is unique--it has two long bars extending from the ends to the ends of the pinblock. There are no "cross-bars."

12 – We installed glue and clamped the frame together where it had separated at the bottom of the piano.

13 – We cut off a section of the bass bridge which was badly split and made a new section.

14 – We screwed the replacement section in place and after the glue had dried we installed a dowel in the screw hole.

15 – We lifted a section of damaged veneer from the lid by applying steam; then we inserted glue under the veneer.

16 – We clamped a flat plank onto the damaged veneer to force it back into place.

17 – After the glue dried, we removed the clamps, stripped the repaired area, applied sealer and stain. It will darken somewhat with the final coats of lacquer, and blend quite well with the rest of the lid.

18 – After heating the underside of the piano to about 120 degrees for three days, we shaped the soundboard cracks and installed spruce shims with glue.

19 – After scraping and sanding the soundboard, bridges and plate, we applied two coats of sealer and two coats of spar urethane. This results in a very hard surface and a rich piano tone.

20 – After re-installing the plate and understring felt, we restrung and repinned the piano, using larger-size pins.

21 – While restringing, we "chipped" each string up to pitch, using the octave below for reference. This was easily accomplished because all notes are identified on the pinblock.

22 – We re-installed the keybed, after repairing a wide crack in the moulding on one edge.

23 – After cleaning and polishing the metal parts, and sanding the wood parts, we reassembled the pedal board and lubricated the moving parts.

24 – We re-installed the pedal board and, after a thorough cleaning and lubraction, replaced the casters.

25 – A careful inspection of the hammer heads showed enough felt in the top octave to warrant reshaping the heads rather than replacing them. Another reason for using the original hammers was the absence of hammer butt springs--the hammers were consequently unconventionally small and light-weight. Replacement would be very costly.

26 – Since the original pinblock decal (located in the top right corner of the piano's interior) suffered substantial damage during our rebuilding process, we had a custom decal prepared. The new decal is a very realistic replacement of the original.

27 – We cleaned the keys and polished the ivory keytops and ebony sharps.

28 – We cleaned the key pins and the keyframe. Then we measured the height of the "key stop rail" which prevents free movement of the keys and limits the amount of "aftertouch." Due to extensive hammer wear and compression of the rail felts, we found it was necessary to raise this rail about 1/8". . .

29 – Unfortunately the height of this special key stop rail is not adjustable. To raise it, we broke the glue joint supporting it, and we shaped a piece of maple 1/8" thick and glued-and-clamped the back of the keyframe together again.

30 – We made a second piece of maple the same size and used it to decrease the distance from the hammer rail to the strings by about 1/8". Then we installed a thicker piece of hammer rail felt. The hammer blow distance resulting from these alterations is about 1 3/4". This would be close to the original blow distance when the piano was new.

31 – We tightened all the action screws and tested the various felt and leather surfaces. A few butts and back checks needed to be recovered. Next, we re-installed several jack flanges that had become unglued. When we removed the wippens, we noticed that a unique feature of this piano is a letoff set-screw and knob located BEHIND each jack.

32 – Also, the jack springs in this piano are attached to the flange below each jack. Some of these springs were broken, and we decided to replace them by installing modified repair springs on the flanges.

33 – We found that all old bridle tapes were badly frayed and worn, so we needed to replace the entire set. We cut off the old tapes from the bottoms of the butts and attached replacements to the catcher shanks with a thick layer of white glue.

34 – We planned the length of the replacement tapes by marking two locations on them: the spot where the tape should touch the underside of the catcher, and the spot where we would notch the tape for inserting the tab.

35 – We had limited room for tying each tape to the shanks and attaching it to the bridle wire, so we attached the tapes one at a time to the shanks, keeping the hammers not yet tied out of the way.

36 – After the action was completely reconditioned, we installed the keys and regulated keyheight, keydip, and letoff for each key, one at a time. Through this strategy, we could ensure consistency of touch and action efficiency from bass to treble. During this part of the process, we enjoyed a real sense of accomplishment in noticing that the extra work of inserting 1/8" maple spacers in two locations was well worth the effort!

37 – We removed each damper lever and wire for refelting and adjustment.

38 – Note that dampers in the "birdcage" action are located OVER the hammer. In this location, they mute strings near their top ends, resulting in some tone "bleeding." If they are properly adjusted, however, with normal playing this slight additional "sustaining" quality of each note is almost imperceptible.

39 – There are two ways of muting-for-tuning--either the entire action needs to be removed for insertion of muting strip, or the damper action needs to be removed to give access to the upper portion of the strings for muting. For initial tunings, we removed the entire action and inserted muting strips in all two-string and three-string unisons.

40 – For our final tuning, we removed the damper action for easier access to the strings for muting.

41 – We installed the front lid panel. The color and sheen of the refinished rear section of the lid blends very well with the front section.

42 – While re-assembling the piano, we repaired the cabinet in several locations, including re-attaching loose moulding pieces and re-gluing the leg sections.

43 – DONE! Ready for delivery. View from the right side.

44 – We really enjoyed working on this vintage piano. Here is a close-up view of one of the front panels. These decorative panels each have beautiful walnut moulding.