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STEINWAY UPDATE No.5 Dec 2009

OVERVUE
The beginning of December saw the project moving forward at a good pace. With the plate removed we could see the condition of the top of the pinblock which revealed no splits or cracks but it will be replaced anyway.
As mentioned in a previous writing, the soundboard was going to be retained thus establishing the original integrity of the piano.Now that the frame has been removed it was clear that the soundboard was free from any sort of cracking.There only remained some compression undulations along some of the plank joints.This really confirms that the moisture level at manufacture was very low and this level was never exceeded during the piano's life.It also means that the board has retained its shape and tension throughout. All the more reason for the decision not to replace it.It is argued also that the quality of soundboard wood in the 1880s was much superior to the wood sourced nowdays.Thus confirming that this piano should sound amazing when completed,just as it did when leaving the factory in 1880.
We have noticed that all the wooden dowels that the frame originally sat on are flush with the soundboard (see pic 9).
When new, the dowells would have been around 1/.8 inch above the soundboard.This probably means that at sometime the plate was removed and the dowells filed down to lower the plate a little to retain downbearing on the bridges.This was often carried out to improve the sound and is still done today.
We are going to fit an adjustable type of perimeter bolt so that we can finely adjust downbearing to the optimum.
In addition to capping the bridges,we rebuilt the underdamper system and fitted the perimeter plate bolts.

CAPPING THE BRIDGES (Pics 1 to 5)
Firstly, the bridge pins were sized for replacement and removed.Then a mylor template was made of the tops of each bridge marking the holes for the bridge pins. The bridges were then routed to remove the old bridge caps and the bridge pin holes filled with dowells.
New caps were made from beech wood and glued to the bridge using go bars to provide downward pressure having made sure the soundboard was fully supported underneath with wedges.
The new caps were left to dry for 2 days and then the go bars were removed and the bridges were routed to the correct shape.

THE BACK ACTION (Pics 6 to 9)
The new back action kit from Renner arrived and was assembled using the old action for reference.

PLATE PERIMETER BOLTS (Pics 10,11.)
The bolts were screwed into place ready for the next stage.

IN THE NEXT UPDATE
The next job will be to re fit the plate and adjust the height for correct downbearing on the bridges. Then the bridges will be planed to the correct height, notched and the new bridge pins fitted.
To be continued...
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