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Restore on Contract

Collard & Collard 6' Grand #12493 (1830) - "BEFORE"

Collard & Collard 6' Grand #12493 (1830) - "APRIL 28, 2007: BACK IN OWNER'S HOME"

Collard & Collard 6' Grand #12493

IMPROVEMENTS:
Rebuild--Remove strings & pins. Lift plate and repair soundboard. Repin & Restring.

Recondition--Recondition action: replace and repair defective parts, lubricate or replace tight centers, tighten all screws. Install new hammers (if available). Replace damper felts.

Regulation--Replace underkey punchings. Complete regulation, to ensure reliable performance.

SCHEDULE:

Pick up piano--February 17, 2007

Complete Improvements--February-April, 2007

Deliver to Birch Bay, WA--April 28, 2007

Collard & Collard 6' Grand #12493
Additional Pictures
taken in our shop

1 – This piano's "square back" resembles the style of square grand pianos which were popular during the early 1800's. Unlike more recent grands, however, all strings run parallel to the side wall rather than having an "overstrung" bass section.

2 – The action of this piano is in surprisingly good shape overall--all components are in original condition. Hammers, kuckles, back checks and other felt and leather surfaces show a lot of wear. After completely dismantling the action, we will decide what parts to replace. It will be a special challenge to regulate this action, since it lacks the conventional "repetition lever"--in its place is a moving regulating button-and-lever, unique to pianos of the early 19th century, that moves to give room to the returning jack.

3 – One problem from top to bottom of the playing action is the tightness of the hammer flange centers. Rather than lubricating, we will need to ream the felt felt bushings and replace this entire set of center pins. Hopefully, this will result in a more responsive, efficient action. The hammers are a bit lighter than those of more recent grands, having thinner felt and lacking tails, so the tone of this piano will be somewhat more subdued than the tone of more recent grands.

4 – We removed the dampers. Like the Chickering Grand of the early 20th century, the damper wires are threaded and are removed from the underlevers by lifting and unscrewing.

5 – We removed the damper underlever mechanism. The underlevers are "hinged" to the sustain carriage by means of a plastic-like hard paper. Many of these "hinges" have broken and will need to be replaced. We will use thick player piano bellows cloth for replacement hinges, and we will replace two broken flange hinges with player piano motor cloth.

6 – The top treble section of strings are held in place by a unique "agraffe-bar."

7 – All low treble, tenor, and bass strings are held in place by single agraffes.

8 – The tenor section consists of 2-string unisons, no doubt to accommodate a plate which is somewhat weaker than plates on more recent grands. The strings in this section are all 17-gauge piano wire, so the tone in this section will not be as deep as that of more recent grands.

9 – The bass section has 13 single-string unisons and 10 two-string unisons.

10 – Tuning pins are size 1/0 with rectangular tips. To loosen them, we used a vintage tuning hammer which we inherited from a retired tuner. We plan to redrill and ream the pin holes to accommodate size 2/0 modern tuning pins.

11 – Before removing the strings and pins, we prepared a "scale guide" indicating string gauges, to be used as guide for re-stringing.

12 – We removed the wound bass strings and packed them for shipment to the string maker. We placed a punching in the set to show the missing bass string, and included instructions for making this string.

13 – We removed the tuning pins using a special bit in our half-inch drill.

14 – We removed the soundboard screws, and then scraped the old varnish from the exposed surfaces of the soundboard.

15 – Using a special "shimming tool" we slightly enlarged three soundboard cracks into a "V"-shape, and we glued spruce shims into these cracks to improve the integrity of the soundboard.

16 – We cut away the tops of the repair shims to the surface of the soundboard, sanded the board, and applied a coat of sealer.

17 – We applied two coats of satin urethane to the soundboard. When it is dry, we will re-install the soundboard screws and be ready for re-stringing.

18 – We removed the components of the sustain mechanism from the piano for reconditioning: the underlever system, the damper stop rail, the dampers, and the damper guide rail.

19 – The damper underlevers and flanges of this piano have a unique design: they are "hinged" with a flexible synthetic material. We replaced the broken underlever "hinges" with strong player bellows cloth material.

20 – We rebushed all the guide holes in the damper guide rail with new cloth to ensure smooth travel for the damper wires.

21 – After thoroughly cleaning the plate, we installed new understring felt.

22 – Several "jack springs" in this non-conventional grand action were broken; we glued small maple blocks onto the keys and installed new hammer rail springs which of appropriate strength.

23 – Several "jack flanges" were broken at the center pin bushings, so we glued new jack flanges into position in a cut-out area of the original flanges.

24 – We cleaned the key frame, polished the key pins and other hardware, and installed new underkey punchings.

25 – We regulated key heights and leveling on the workbench.

26 – With the keyframe-and-keys in the piano and the end blocks, fallboard, and keyslip in place, we tested the key heights, making improvements to ensure adequate space between the keys and the fallboard.

27 – After reaming each bushing, we installed a new center pin in each hammer flange to ensure smooth movement of all hammers.

28 – We decided to restring the piano using size 2/0 tuning pins to replace the size 1/0 originals. We cleaned and lengthened each hole using a drill bit about 15/1000 smaller in diameter than a size 2/0 pin.

29 – We installed new strings and tuning pins, beginning in the treble section--using the string size guide prepared earlier.

30 – Restringing has been completed. Notice that, unlike modern grands, which have an "overstrung bass section," this piano has all strings running parallel to the left rim. Also, there are a larger number of two-string unisons in the low treble section. These features result in reduced stress on the piano's plate, which is not as massive and strong as the plate of a modern grand.

31 – Using a special jig in our drill press, we drilled the hammers, locating the holes 2 inches from the striking points.

32 – We cut the tails to make the hammer mouldings the same size as the originals. On this piano, the back checks are higher than they are on modern grands.

33 – We shaped the tails and removed some felt to reduce the hammer weights to match the originals.

34 – We removed the old hammers and installed new ones, using the "alternate hammer" method to ensure that the new hammers would be positioned properly. During this process, several shanks broke and needed to be replaced.

35 – We tested "down weight" and "up weight" on the keys to ensure appropriate key touch across the keyboard.

36 – With all new hammers installed, we spaced them to the strings.

37 – After hammer spacing, we spaced the jacks and the back checks so they were aligned to the knuckles and the hammer tails.

38 – We reconditioned the underlever flanges, replacing frayed leather "hinges" with "motor cloth" normally used on player pianos. This material makes strong, flexible hinges. In future, if the piano is played a lot, the rest of these hinges will need to be replaced.

39 – We cleaned all damper wires and blocks, replaced the damper felts of the bass and top treble sections, and cleaned the mid-section felts.

40 – We re-installed the bass section dampers, temporarily placing hammer shanks under the rounded middles to ensure the felts were securely glued onto the blocks.

41 – We re-installed the top treble and mid-section dampers, screwing each threaded wire into the appropriate underlever flange at the appropriate height, ensuring that all dampers lift simultaneously when the sustain pedal is depressed.

42 – With all dampers in place, we raised the pitch of the piano to concert pitch.  After the fallboard decal has been installed, this project will be finished!

43 - Prior to delivery of the piano, we tuned the piano several times, so that at delivery the pitch will be reasonably stable.

44 – We installed the new fallboard decal.

45 - Finished--side view.

46 – Finished, in the owner's home.