Piano Tuna!

The piano is tuned! It sounds like music!

And Doug the Piano Tuner was able to find me some spare hammers to replace the two missing ones! And he put a third string on the top note, where it was missing!

He tells me it tuned up just fine. He played a jazz piece to test it out, and I have the vid to prove it!

The next effort will be for me to tune myself. I have to prevent all this success from making me regret the clack in the keys.

Hellsbells, Kate, Lester is 97 years old! You can’t really hear the clack unless you’re right on top of it. You've got nothing to complain about. So stop it! stop it! stop it!!

. . . This is my damned perfectionist streak creeping out. No, I'm not consistently perfectionistic. If things are generally awry, I let them go and don’t worry. In fact, I put up with and ignore all sorts of mess and chaos-- witness the scabby state of my woodwork the past four years. But if things are aaallllmost right, I want them to be right altogether, blast it.

Tough tuna. With a 1911-vintage upright piano, It. Ain’t. Happening.

__________________________________

(If anyone is interested, the tuner's two visits, including time, parts, and labor, ran me under $100. It's money well spent.)

A440!

The piano tuner has come and gone, and guess what! He was able to bring my 1911 Lester piano up a whole tone to match concert pitch!

Or maybe not, not quite, not yet. He said, "I tuned it, but it won't sound like it's in tune. I still have to fine tune it. We'll let it settle, then I'll come back and do that."

He tried to explain to me how a piano can be in tune, yet sound like it's out. But I haven't a good enough grip of the science of harmonics to understand how that works. But I can hear it when I play it. A little jangly, ya know?

He'll return on Easter Monday, and do the fine tuning. Meanwhile, if I turn off my aural "Ouch" reflex, I can actually use my piano to learn choir music, without having to transpose a tone up!

Good news, good news! . . . On the other hand, the rattle I get when I strike the keys with any force-- I'm stuck with that. It's because Lester is old. He harmonizes well with my creaky elbows and knees!

i can has piyanoh?

With a nod to all you lolcat fanciers in Housebloggerdom, that is my cat-got-the-pigeon way of announcing that as of 6:00 o'clock last evening I got my 1911-vintage piano moved safely into the front room of the Sow's Ear.

And that is despite snow and sleet and reports of accidents and weather-related mayhem all round the area; despite slushy hilly winding roads for me, and a long traffic jam that had my piano movers stuck on the Parkway West for nearly a half hour; despite a tight doorway and slick sloping conditions at the church; despite a truck diesel gauge that was riding on Empty and a white-knuckled (on the part of the movers) detour to the nearest station that sells diesel fuel; despite needing to bring the piano up my neighbors' walk due to the tight turn at the foot of my front steps; and despite the severe slope of the floor of my front-porch-turned-front-room, that initially caused the top back edge of the piano to lean a good 3" away from the wall.

Despite all that, it's in.

The piano movers' getting stuck in traffic on the way to the church actually worked out well for me: It gave me more time to vacuum the drywall sanding dust and the cobwebs off the piano and bench. As soon as they arrived, everything was ready to go.

It's really amazing what only two not tremendously big guys can do with just a dolly, a piece of plywood, a metal ramp, and a lot of technique. Despite, I say again, the slope and a lot of ice and snow.

I video'd about the whole process; all but the very end at the house, when I was busy lending a hand shepherding the piano into position and pulling the dolly out from under when that was done. I intend to put the clips all together and make a little movie out of it, but I'd like some music to go with it, and the piece I'm thinking of I only have on cassette.

So the video will have to wait. In the meantime, here are a few stills:

[Photos coming!!!!]


It was really silly of me not to consider the slope of my front room and have something ready to put under the front casters. The movers shoved folded-up cardboard under there for me, but the piano's still leaning out an inch too much.

So there's something else for the project list: Make some decent-looking blocks that'll raise the front casters up a good inch and half. And then figure out how to raise the bench enough to compensate.

Today I cleaned off the rest of the dust and dirt, and moved the bookcase and books that used to be on that wall into the living room.

And sat down and played awhile, as well as I am able.

Now that the piano is in, my ideas for the front room are coalescing. Maybe variations on the theme of light green painted walls with a gold and white stencilled frieze around the top. Something with musical motifs in an Arts and Crafts style, maybe. I'd toy with the idea of doing the trim in a creamy-white marbleized effect-- but I've got the woodwork too far stripped to natural to go back to paint. And the dark wood tone goes well with the dark mahogany of the piano!

Commitment

Looks like I've decided to adopt Lester, the 97-year-old piano.

I had a long phone conversation with the local piano tuner last Tuesday evening. Having read the negative opinion of the tech from Jersey and listened to the video of the piano being played that I posted here on my blog, his revised opinion is that the Jersey boy just wants to sell his own used pianos.

And that assuming that I'm not looking to play pounding Lizst all day and all night or make commercial recordings or prepare myself to play in major concerts halls, he gives it that the instrument in question will suit me just fine. Cracked bridge in the bass? No, it'd be making awful noises if so. Slipping pins and imminent failure in the pinblock? It'd be excruciatingly out of intonation if that were the case. No, silly thing just needs tuned.

So, I've arranged with a piano mover to meet me at the church late this coming Wednesday afternoon. They'll bring it up and move it in to the Sow's Ear.

And the piano will probably sound like a squealing pig for a fortnight or more, because it has to settle into the climate here at the house before it can be tuned.

Before it comes, I still have to remove the baseboard from the wall it's going against. No point in pushing that behemoth out of the way more than once. And take down my concert posters, which will now have to be hung higher.

Oh, yes, and sweet talk my neighbors (the ones with the awful aluminum siding) into letting the piano movers cross their yard if that's the only way they can get a straight shot at my front steps.

(I do hope the plywood bedboard in the guest room is big enough to cover next door's grass . . . I'd hate to have to go to Lowe's and buy a new sheet just for this!)

See Sharp or Be Flat?

Here's the next installment of the continuing saga of the 1911 Lester piano I'm contemplating giving a good home to (I keep this up, Jeannie and Aaron might question whether this is truly a house blog anymore!):

Last night, I sent a link to my last post, along with a filled-in worksheet, to a piano tech in New Jersey. I made the virtual acquaintance of this person through purchasing a used piano buying guide from him on eBay Thursday night ($2.99 Buy It Now). The price included follow-up advice, so I took advantage of it.

Early this morning, his reply came in. He strongly recommended I not take this piano on, even as a giveaway. The buzz in the one key, he wrote, is a hard damper felt. The lost motion in some others would be missing felts or loose jacks coming unglued. The bottoming out in the bass notes is likely a cracked bass bridge. The same, he said, was likely true for the treble bridge. The fact that the pinblock had been doped (chemically treated to make the wood swell to keep the tuning pins in snugly) was a bad sign that the pins are probably still loose.

It would, he said, cost around $6,600 to regulate and repair the piano to playable condition (including replacing the pinblock to the tune of $4,700). And even then, I'd have a 97 year old piano with mostly 97 year old parts. And that doesn't include moving and tuning.

"Lester pianos," the Jersey tech wrote, "are quite good – but the age and condition is working against this one." I could, he said, buy something much younger and better for a lot cheaper.

With this advice in mind, I've done some objective thinking on the subject.

I'm not dead set on acquiring this particular piano. It just happens to be available. If it doesn't work well enough, it'd be taking up the space of another that'd suit me better.

Late this afternoon, then, I called back the local tech/piano tuner to see about getting a second opinion. I've forwarded him all the info I sent the tech in New Jersey, including the NJ tech's reply, and asked him to quote me a fee to meet me at the church to look at it himself.

But the local guy is a lot more optimistic. He feels the tech in New Jersey has to be painstakingly conservative on the advice he gives me, in order to cover his rear. That is, any one symptom can have any number of causes, more or less critical. Someone giving advice via email has to assume the worst. The local tuner, being able to see the instrument in person, can afford to be more optimistic.

So we'll see. If the local tuner/tech tells me it'd cost me too much to fix, forget it. Hey, if I want to sink thousands of dollars into a handsome piece of woodwork, I'd rather go broke buying the 1698 Jacobean tridarn dresser an antique dealer up the Beaver River has for sale.

And of course if the piano's an outright junker, then it's for the dump. In that case, I'd like to get with the church to see about their allowing me to salvage the wooden casework for reuse in a new project. And try to convince them to recycle the harp and wires and other metal parts. There's a metal scrap yard just up the Ohio River from me I could refer them to.

But all this is contingency thinking. I'll wait to hear what the local tuner/tech says.

Etude on a 97-Year Old Piano

Well. I have spent the weekend up to my eyeballs in Internet research on the acquisition, care, and feeding of used pianos.

On Friday, I also had a productive talk with a piano tuner of my acquaintance.

Amazing the information there is out there. There's a whole world of piano terms and facts and advice I never knew existed a week ago; my head is stuffed quite full of it all and a lot of it has come in through the eyeholes and fallen right back out again.

But I retained enough to make a nice checklist of things to look at when I went to evaluate the old Lester piano again, the one a village church in my presbytery is trying to give away.

This evening, I was met at the church by the wife of the elder who's been my contact on this. Once we found the found the correct key and got in out of the dark and the bitter wind, we went downstairs to the drywall dust-covered, lumber-crammed, once-and-future pastor's office and encountered the Beast.

First objects of study:

• Verify that the number her husband sent me via email last evening is the serial number and not something else. Check! (Looked it up online last night and learned this piano probably dates from 1910 or 1911.)
  















• Verify no water damage from last summer's fire or from high humidity. Check! Some dings and scrapes, as you'd expect from a piano used in the Sunday School department, but no lifted veneer whatsoever. And no mold or red rust. Hurrah!
  


• Verify which key it is that's missing the top part of the hammer. It's the F7, not the G7. The C8 is missing most of its hammer assembly. But as the tuner told me the other day, "You can do without those notes."

Then on to the musical bit! My conductress obliged by playing the keys while I took notes and checked off items.

• Verify that no keys stick. Check! Though a couple are a little irregular to the touch, depending on the angle your finger hits them. Feels kind of like a brake pedal that goes down a bit before it begins to engage. (Note to me: Find out what this means.)



• Verify no buzzing. Well, sorta check. One key, the D#5, buzzes a little when you release it. But not all the time.



• Verify no ring-over on any one key or keys (assuming sustain pedal isn't on). Check! None whatsoever.



• Verify no deviations or restarts in pitch-- like you're starting over again back down the scale. Check! This would have been a deal-breaker-- the tuner told me it's a sign the cast iron harp/plate is broken and the piano is toast. This one is not.



• Verify no whaa-whaa-whaa beats on any note. Check! None.



• Verify no loudness variations from note to note. Check!



• Verify it never sounds like one key is playing two notes at a time (indicative of slipped tuning pins). Check!



• Verify no weird or odd noises. Check! Barring the little buzz from the D#5 key, that is.



• Verify no dead tones. Check!



• Verify no rattles (a sign of broken wires-- or lost pencils). Check!



• Verify no hammers hit the wires more than once per keystroke. Check!
  
  
• Verify that the pinblock has not separated more than 1/4" from the back frame. Check! In fact, it's nice and tight with no separation at all.

• Verify that the interesting lever to the right of the treble keys controls the practice mute. Yes, but the mute bar itself is missing. But the control works, which is promising. At least, my neighbors might think so!

And finally, play it a bit to see how it sounds overall. I spoke to the church organist about the piano last night; she didn't think it'd been tuned in fifteen years. It wasn't because the piano was bad, it was just that the kids turned up their noses at singing. And she gave up trying to make them.

So it's surprising how decent it still sounds. Me, I play around on pianos more than I play them. (If I take this one, I'll have to learn properly.) But I can pick out a melody by ear, and this old upright gave it back to me as a coherent, recognisable thing.

And I have to say that the tenor range especially has a full, rich, tone. The bass bottoms out rather, and the treble sounds like, well, like it needs tuned. But I think the potential is definitely there. According to the organist, it can never again be brought up to A440 concert pitch. But in the judgement of this rank amateur, it most likely can be made to agree well with itself. And since I'm not afflicted with perfect pitch, that's enough for me.

So tomorrow I start calling piano movers for bids. Good news-- turns out there's no stairs to speak of to get it out of the church basement. One step at the back door to keep out the water, then it's straight out to grade. Another loud hurrah!

A Thought

I've been online reading up on do-it-yourself piano moving and why not to do it-- especially with pianos the size of the one I've been offered.

It does rather look as if, by having amateurs do it, I could be risking expense in increased insurance rates-- not to mention damaged friends and friendships--what I would be saving on a professional piano mover.

But if this is the case, the church, unless they want to smash it up and take it out piece by piece, will also have to pay the professionals to get it out of their basement.

Wonder if they'd consider splitting the cost?

(I'll wait and hear what the piano tuner/technician says before getting too deep into the moving issue.)

Traumerei

I've always wanted a piano.

I've always considered it ironic that I, the most musical of my siblings, should in childhood never have had the chance to take lessons due to lack of family funds.

It always seemed to me a tragedy, if not a sacrilege, that when I was about six my dad traded our piano in on a buzzy electric organ.

So a month or so ago, when a church in my presbytery advertised an upright piano free for the taking to any church or individual that wanted it, I started to dream.

The congregation's in the middle of renovations after a fire last summer and they need the old piano out of the way. I'd like a free piano. What could be more ideal for everyone?

I answered the email directly, stating that of course, a church should have first claim, but if no one else offered for it . . .

No one did. I began to dream more vividly. I talked to some friends who'd recently acquired a used piano of their own to get their help in moving what I hoped soon would be mine. I measured likely walls that the piano could go up against. I reminded myself to make sure it was mounted on wheels, so I could move it when the time comes to refinish the baseboards.

And today I arranged to come out and look at it. I found the instrument pushed out of the way, crowded into what used to be the pastor's office, off the new-laid vinyl tile floor in the fellowship hall.

It is a beauty. Forgot to note down the serial number (idiot!), but it's a Philadelphia Lester, probably at least 100 years old. The carving is lovely without being overdone. Keys all of ebony or of ivory overlay. None of the keys stick or go down without coming back up. True, two of them don't sound-- they're missing their hammers. But they're the G7 and the C8 way at the top, and if in the short term I'm using the piano mainly to teach myself vocal repertoire, repairing those can wait. It's definitely out of tune, but not wildly so. The works are accessible from the front, which should make tuning easier. And the bench comes with it.

However. However. This baby is big. A lot bigger than I expected. Almost five and a half feet wide at the upper cornice and four foot eight inches high and twenty-eight inches deep. A lot bigger than the more modern piano my friends recently used a refrigerator dolly and three guys to move. I showed the pictures to them this evening, and the husband said, "My dad's dolly won't hold that. You'll need six strong men. And a pickup truck."

He did not sound encouraging. Or too eager to volunteer, either.

And my front steps are another nightmare. Five big concrete risers in a stair that goes out sideways. No way a piano that size is making that turn from my walkway to those stairs. I'd have to get permission to shoot at it from the neighbors' yard. If the ground is frozen it might not destroy their grass, but who can really tell?

And it'd need a ramp. Definitely a ramp. I don't see even six strong guys lifting that behemoth up those steps.

And then this evening, I went on eBay to see what pianos like this are being offered for. Didn't find any equivalent, but I did find (and buy) an inexpensive booklet on how to buy used upright pianos, being sold by a piano tech in New Jersey. According to him, tuning and reconditioning an old piano can run into the hundreds or thousands!

Then there's the transport problem at the church end. This was the Sunday School piano, and it's down in the church basement. You'd think that aspect of the problem would have hit me this afternoon when I was over there inspecting it, but no, I was going dreamy over the fluted columns and the applique scrollwork! We walked down a narrow set of stairs with a 180 degree turn at the top to get down to that lower level. Surely there's got to be another exit, but where? Getting the instrument into my house looks easy compared to this!

My piano dreams are rapidly dissipating.

Or are they?

My friend is all for arranging nephews with pickup trucks and all sorts of other help, if, as she says, I've got my heart set on having it.

I told her no, not quite . . . But I'm going to give it a good shot, keeping in mind how broke I am.

First thing is to find out what the local piano tuner would charge to meet me at the church and tell me what I'd be getting into for tuning and repairs.

Then it might be worthwhile finding out what real professional piano movers would want to be paid.

And if that's too rich for my blood, maybe I'll just tell the people at the church that if they really really really want to get their old piano out of the way of their renovation work, they'll have to supply the manpower to get it out of their basement.

I can dream, can't I?