I found a very old piano action from someone in Nashville who was looking to free up some space. She had originally bought it from an antique store and seated it on a stained piece of wood; she was going to have it mounted on her wall in a case with a glass front as an art piece. It looked quite nice as an art piece, but since she was running out of room, she decided to give it away. We met up, and after a quick exchange, I got it wrapped in a blanket and loaded in my car.
I had the action underneath my workbench for a few weeks while I was working on the keys for the Vose and Sons project, but now that those keys are back in the piano, I have some space to strip this action. You can see the action is extremely worn, dirty, and many parts are broken. It is obviously unfit for a functional piano, but there were still plenty of parts that are viable as spare parts. I believe in the past another technician had the same idea, since you can see the hammer felt on the high end has been cleanly removed, and most of the damper felt is the same.
I mentioned there are still viable parts on this action. You may be asking yourself where, or what, are these parts? Well, there are four main things I was after: hammers, dampers, wippens, and let-off screws. It's good to always have at least some spare parts lying around for when pianos need only one or two things replaced. If I were to need a full set of hammers, for instance, I would just order some. However, if there's a piano that only needs a few, and I have some that can be fitted to match, then it could save money and time for the client that I'm working for. I wasn't looking to get full sets of all these parts, but rather between ten and twenty of each to save for a rainy day. The other parts I was after were flange screws; these are the screws that hold much of the action parts together, and their size tends to be universal. While these screws may have some rust on them, the metal is still solid, so I definitely wanted those.
Here are the things I wanted to save. The top left picture shows the pile of 88 hammers that I removed, which I then sifted through to find the best pieces to save. The top right shows up close the let-off screws (with the circular heads) and the jacks (with the orange felt) that I wanted to save. The middle pictures show the wippens, and the difference in spoon designs that led me to save multiple different types. The differences are there to accommodate the way the action is spaced out in its design. The bottom left picture shows a let-off screw and the button it screws into, and the last pictures show the bodies of a damper and hammer up close. You can see there's a lot that goes into making an action function.
After duct taping my bags to the table so I could easily drop in the parts I wanted to save, I got to work.
For those wondering what the action looked like after I took what I wanted from it and disassembled it, see below. With all the hammers out, the metal brackets removed, the hammer rail and spring rail removed, and a good chunk of other parts removed, it is a shell of its former self. I don't have a use for what is left, so it will unfortunately be thrown away. It has served a good purpose though, through being a piano, being used for parts multiple times, and being an art piece. Each piano has its own story, its own history, and I love learning about each one. I don't know when I'll need these parts, but I'm sure they will be very useful to me in the future.
This was a nice break from working on the antique Vose and Sons. If any of you have noticed, there is now a Sales page on the website! This is where fully restored pianos will be listed as I finish them. It may take a while between tuning visits and other appointments, but sometime soon I will have used pianos for sale up there, across multiple different brands, designs, and price points. If you would like to inquire, please feel free to call us! The next post will detail a gorgeous piano I picked up that is in the works which will someday be listed on that page, so stay tuned for that!
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