57" D.S. Johnston Upright #1543 ca 1890

Beautiful, ornately carved oak cabinet. Has "open pinblock, characteristic of pre-1900 upright pianos. Restored by Ray's Piano Service, August, 2006.

This was a truly fine piano when new! Before restoration, it showed some wear in hammer and damper felts, wobbly hammers, and it was poorly regulated and tuned, but structurally, it was very sound--the tuning pins were very tight, and the soundboard and bridges were in excellent shape. We had many restoration options, from minimal reconditioning to extensive rebuilding and refinishing. We chose to do a minimal reconditioning with very few replacements, leaving other options to be selected by the buyer.
IMPROVEMENTS COMPLETED:

Recondition action and pedal mechanisms—Clean, polish, and lubricate all parts to be reused, tighten all screws, reshape hammers, install new bridle tapes and dampers, replace additional defective parts. Supply a used bench with compatible color and leg design.

Complete Regulation—Install new underkey punchings. Make adjustments to ensure that piano plays like new: key height, key levelling, hammer blow distance, lost motion, letoff,  dampers, spoons.  Tune to A-440

Partial Cabinet Repair & Refinishing--Install new veneer surfaces on two "cheeks." Refinish lid and cheek areas of cabinet.

SCHEDULE:

Picked up piano in Mt. Vernon, WA : August 18, 2006

Reconditioned:  August, 2006.

Sold:  August 31, 2006

Delivered: September 23, 2006

1890 D.S. Johnston Upright

1890 D.S. Johnston Upright -- "After" Picture: Repaired & Refinished Cheeks

1890 D.S. Johnston Upright
Evaluation Pictures
taken in our shop, before project was begun:

1 – Close-up of ivory keytops and fallboard decal. Keytops and finish are in good condition. To prepare this piano for sale as a "reconditioned piano," we will clean the piano exterior and keytops, and replace parts that are defective or badly worn.

2 – Close-up of music rest. The beautiful, ornate oak carving is one of the attractions of this piano.

3 – Close examination of the piano action shows that we will need to dismantle the action in order to repair wobbling hammers. In addition, we will replace the bridle tapes and damper heads, and we will reshape the hammer heads.

4 – The Pierce Piano Atlas does not show any listings for the "D.S. Johnston" piano, so the serial number is not much help in determining the age of this piano. We estimate 1890 to be the year of manufacture because of the "open pinblock," a feature of pre-turn-of-the century uprights, and our comparison with other D.S. Johnston uprights that we have serviced. For example, to see a more recent piano of the same brand, open D.S. Johnston Upright 1905.

5 – The pedals were once chrome-plated. In the future, they can be replated as part of a refinishing project. The pedals and mechanisms are all quite noisy. We will clean, polish, and lubricate these mechanisms to reduce knocks and squeaks.

6 – The bass bridge is in excellent condition--it has sufficient downbearing and a consistent zig-zag string pattern.

7 – The treble strings are badly corroded around the bridge. We will clean these strings with steel wool. The bridge is in excellent shape--no repairs needed.

8 – The finish has worn off areas of the piano lid. If the buyer requests, we will repair and refinish the lid. Otherwise, this can wait until complete refinishing is done later.

9 – The soundboard is solidly glued to the frame around its perimeter, and the glue joints of the frame are also very stable. No repairs required to the piano body.

10 – One rear caster is broken; the other is missing. We'll need to replace these casters.

1890 D.S. Johnston Upright
Pictures of the Reconditioning and Regulating Processes
taken in our shop:

11 – We removed the pedal board and mechanisms for reconditioning, and we replaced the rear casters.

12 – Using steel wool and an air brush, we cleaned the tuning pins, strings, hitch pins, pressure bar, hinges, and bolts.

13 – We reglued a broken piece of oak into position in the pedal openings, and we installed new felt.

14 – We dismantled the pedal mechanisms, repaired a crack in the board, cleaned the wood surfaces and refinished them with shellac.

15 – We cleaned the bolts, springs and pedals on our wire brush wheel, lubricated them, and re-assembled the pedal mechanisms, replacing felt where appropriate.

16 – We re-installed the pedal board and the pedal cover into the piano.

17 – We drilled holes into the sustain pedal prop and the sustain tab on the action, installed felt in the tab, and installed a pin in the pedal prop. With this improvement, the sustain mechanism should work efficiently and quietly.

18 – After cleaning the action with compressed air, we removed all dampers and rails--leaving the hammers and wippens exposed for repairs.

19 – The hammer butts of this piano turn with a center pin fixed onto a flange by small metal plates. The "wobbling" of the hammers was caused by the pins being out-of-place and held on only one side of the flanges. We removed these pins, reamed the flange bushings, and installed new larger pins.

20 – Almost all the butt squares were moth-eaten--a cause of a "clunking" noise of the jacks as they returned under the butt when keys were released. We installed a new set of butt squares.

21 – With the action temporarily bolted in place, we spaced and aligned the hammers to the strings to ensure a solid hammer blow with playing--using special bending pliers to bend the shanks and a special heater to soften the glue joints in order to straighten hammer heads.

22 – We "rough-shaped" the hammer heads using our electric dremel sander, and we "fine-shaped" them by hand using a sanding stick.

23 – We installed a set of new butt squares. This will eliminate a lot of "action noise" with playing.

24 – We removed the worn buckskin covers from several catchers in the middle of the piano and installed new buckskin. We also glued a set of new bridle tapes to the tops of the butts.

25 – We installed the new bridle tapes into the bridle wires.

26 – After cleaning the damper levers, removing the old damper heads and sanding the surfaces of the blocks, and improving the springs by bending them, we installed the damper levers into the action.

27 – To provide enough clearance for full-size damper heads, we glued a small wooden extension to each of the bass damper blocks.

28 – We glued a set of new damper heads onto the treble damper blocks.

29 – We removed the old key cloth and felt punchings, cleaned and polished the key pins, and applied lubricant to the pins.

30 – We installed the new bass dampers with the action bolted in place, to ensure proper fit of the dampers onto the strings.

31 – We cleaned the keys and the capstans with extra fine steel wool and applied lubricant to the capstans.

32 – We planed the nameboard to improve its fit above the keys, and we installed new nameboard felt.

33 – With the first five keys in place and the keyslip and fallboard temporarily installed, we calculated the appropriate heights of the keys at the balance rail and the front rail. We installed paper and felt punchings on the balance rail pins and, leaving sufficient keydip to ensure after touch, we installed the right thickness paper and felt punchings to the front rail pins.

34 – Using a 48" straight edge we regulated the heights of the keys by removing or installing paper punchings where necessary under the balance rail felt punchings.

35 – Using a special key pin bending tool, we adjusted the front key pins to ensure even spacing of the keys and smooth movement of the pins through the front key bushings.

36 – Using a special regulating tool, we regulated the letoff of every hammer head, ensuring "escapement" of each hammer head at 1/8" from its string.

37 – Using a "keydip block" for the white keys and a special guage for the black keys, we regulated the dip of each key stroke by inserting the proper thickness of paper punchings under each key at the front rail. We simultaneously regulated each back check during this process.

38 – Using a "spoon bender" tool, we regulated the damper spoons, ensuring that each damper pad lifts half-way in the stroke of each key.

37 – Using a "keydip block" for the white keys and a special gauge for the black keys, we regulated the dip of each key stroke by inserting the proper thickness of paper punchings under each key at the front rail.

38 – Using a "spoon bender" tool, we regulated the damper spoons, ensuring that each damper pad lifts half-way in the stroke of each key.

39 – Finally, we tested all regulation admustments, made corrections where necessary, and tuned the piano. DONE!

40 – We re-assembled the piano, installing new buttons where needed. We found a bench of similar color and design to accompany this piano.

41 – Before delivery, we replaced the damaged veneer from both "cheeks" and refinished the new surfaces.

42 – We also refinished the top surfaces of the piano lid.