Restored on Contract with Owner

56" Fischer Upright #83316

Tall, beautifully carved oak cabinet. Built in 1889 by Fischer, New York. Restored by Ray’s Piano Service.

IMPROVEMENTS:

Dismantle, Clean—Dismantle. Clean interior. Check casters, replace if necessary. Rebuild pedal mechanisms, install new pedals.

Restring, Repin—Remove original strings, pins, and plate; repair and refinish soundboard and bridges, re-install plate, restring and repin.

Recondition action—Tighten action screws. Install new hammers, dampers, bridle tapes, catcher leather. Replace defective parts.

Complete Regulation—All adjustments to ensure that piano plays like new, using new underkey punchings. Tune to A-440

SCHEDULE:

Picked Up in Bellingham, WA—May 23, 2005

Restoration--June-July, 2005

Delivery--July 19, 2005

1889 Fischer Upright "Before" picture. The beautiful patterned mahogany cabinet still has original finish.

1889 Fischer Upright
Pictures of the restoration process
taken in our shop:

1 – The owner would like us to restore the inner workings of this piano and leave the beautiful exterior finish in its current condition. We will restring and repin, recondition the action, conduct a complete regulation, and tune the piano. This work will take about one month to complete.

2 – We dismantled the piano, removing the panels, legs, keybed, fallboard, etc., in order to leave the strings and pins exposed for restringing.

3 – We removed all strings, saving the bass strings for sending to the string-maker for duplication. We recorded string guages on a cardboard guide taped to the piano.

4 – With a special bit in our half-inch drill, we removed all the old tuning pins.

5 – We cleaned the plate, added a coat of spar urethane to the soundboard, and then installed new understring felt, strings, pins, and stringing braid. We "chipped" each string up to pitch during this process.

6 – We installed new casters to replace the old, worn set, to ensure easier moving of the piano.

7 – After installing the new bass strings, we re-installed the keybed.

8 – We cleaned and reconditioned the pedal mechanisms, then re-installed the pedal board in the piano.

9 – We removed the hammer rail, letoff rail, spring rail, and damper levers from the action. We tightened all action screws, replaced loose center pins, and aligned the hammers to the strings in preparation for installing the new hammers.

10 – We removed the set of original hammer heads and installed a set of new ones. We took care to install the top treble hammers in a position that would result in good musical tone.

11 – After cleaning and lubricating, we re-installed the damper rods. Then we cleaned the damper wires, tightened the damper head screws, removed the damper felts, and re-installed the damper levers.

12 – We installed new damper felts, then bent the damper wires to compensate for different thickness of damper felt.

13 – We installed new bridle tapes. Tapes were glued to the tops of the butts, and after drying, the tips were inserted in the bridle wires.

14 – We cleaned and buffed the ivory keytops before replacing the keys in the piano.

15 – We cleaned and polished the front and balance rail keypins, then installed new underkey punchings before replacing the keys.

16 – With the action and keys in the piano, we conducted a complete regulation: sustain, hammer blow distance, capstans, hammer height and leveling, letoff, keydip, damper spoons. Finally, we tuned the piano several times. We will re-assemble the piano and deliver to the client in a few days. The piano now plays and sounds beautifully! It should provide great music well into the next century.