It's been a while! A lot has happened since we opened up the Vose and Sons upright, between a PTG meeting, being with my church people, catching up with colleagues, and doing work for the business and the piano. I've been working on two important things: the keys and the key bed. Today, we'll be focusing just on the key bed; the keys need a little bit more work before they're ready for show and tell.
The key bed is the space just underneath the keys. It contains the front and back balance rails, which support rail pins that the key pivots on during play. After pulling out the keys, I found one of the dirtiest key beds I've seen in a while (and if you're wondering, those coins are a 2013 quarter and a James K. Polk dollar coin). While I've seen some bad things underneath due to neglect, this is just a piano that, unfortunately, hasn't been opened up since 1909. With gunk on the balance rails, caked dust everywhere, and tons of rust on the rail pins, I had my work cut out for me.
After hours of work scrubbing, shining, and scraping, I was able to get the original 114-year-old felt off of the rail pins, the pins themselves back to their original shine, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the wood underneath all that gray dust was actually stained purple! I replaced the felt and lubricated the rail pins for longevity and smoother play. The two center pictures also show the rail pins before and after being twisted back to being uniform and straight, to preserve the longevity of the keys. The key bed truly looks great again, but there's more to the work than just it looking great.
I've done this work on my personal piano before. The cleaning, vacuuming, and lubricating brings out the shine and color, and it instills confidence that my piano is a solid machine both inside and out. Any kind of dust, insulation, or rust inside the piano has the chance to fly out of the piano as airborne particles during play, which the player can breathe. So, say a mouse at some point enters a piano, makes a nest of fiberglass insulation, then leaves. If you play that piano, there's a chance that you'll be breathing that toxic substance in without even realizing it. Beyond that, the piano will just feel better after the rail pins have had anything on them removed and then lubricated. The key pivots on the rail pins. When the pins have had a chance to build up anything that could interfere with play, the keys may feel sluggish while being pressed down and may rise back to the resting position slowly, or sometimes get completely stuck. Worse, if the buildup of dirt and grime is inconsistent across the piano, the keys can have their ease of play changed so that the piano no longer feels uniform. This is actually a common service call, with clients claiming their keys aren't returning or just don't feel right.
I encourage anyone reading to consider their piano's maintenance history. Not just tuning or external cleaning, but what is inside the piano. Maybe your piano hasn't been opened in the last 20 years, when you had a problem with the action and called a technician. Maybe it hasn't been opened since it left the factory, like this antique. Many people are surprised at how smooth and revived their piano feels after this specific key service. The needs of most pianos aren't as bad as this was, but many pianos are in need of more work than just tuning, and this is an easy first step in restoring your piano.
We recommend this cleaning and lubrication every ten years or so. We'd love to come out and help you make your piano feel right again! Even if you feel like nothing is wrong, it's absolutely worth adding on to a tuning visit as preventative maintenance. If you'd like to book this or any other service, you can visit our Online Booking tab. In the meantime, I'll continue to restore this antique Vose and Sons. I can't wait to show you the work I'm doing on the keys themselves!
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