Complete Piano Restoration

[mscwsl817]

beautyfuul!0:23 is scary!

[itscodyw]

nice work!!!! I love every thing about it but that thing that holds the lid up is ugly.

[bronluke123456]

i live in oxnard california and wanted to know a place where they can restore a piano for a good price... im buying a beat up upright piano and it needs a lot of work... sounds beautiful tho for being really old... buying it for $75.. better than nothing.....

[fluterampal]

I have a kimball almost exactly like that in color and size. It is now strip of all finish. did you use shellac to finish? Im think of using red ruby shellac. Regards

[jonnda]

My church had an old (1930's?) Kimbal like this one, but a bit longer. After using it for 30+ years they decided tuning it every month was too much effort and money. Now they have a newish Boston baby grand, which is alright- but I MISS THAT KIMBALL! I am glad to see someone out there has restored one.

[eaustin1]

@jonnda Yeah, every month would be quite an expense...that money would have been better spent on a restoration. Sounds like they got something nice as a replacement. Hopefully that older Kimball lives on!

[jonnda]

@eaustin1 Yeah, if I could have been part of the group that makes those decisions I would have suggested restoration. I am not sure how much they looked into that. If I understand correctly, they gave it to a guy who restores Baldwin pianos because there was some miscommunication. He in turn shipped it off to a guy in Mexico who (I think/hope) restores old pianos of various brands.

[ronnieericsson]

Hi! Would you have a look at my squeaky, heavy played piano action?

I have a video clip of it on my page.

[eaustin1]

@ronnieericsson Great video! Sounds like you're getting some useful advice there...

[az101010]

i like that sound a little better than the NY Steinway..

[eaustin1]

kawhackitarag: a tiny primer for those who don't know: the soundboard of a piano has a slight curve or "crown" to it, which puts pressure on the wood. wood under pressure holds tone; flat boards do not! as a piano ages and the soundboard loses crown, sometimes it's a desirable option to restore that pressure. this isn't professional advice, but we have lowered plates - by mere millimeters - to increase downbearing of strings to bridge. VERY tricky to do...measure a thousand times, cut once!

[eaustin1]

libra051090: a 9 foot grand?! woohoo! you're going to run into quite a hefty refinishing charge with that one, since that's usually calculated by how many "feet" of piano is being refinished. we run into lots of ambitious folks who try to go it alone with little/no experience, and just get swamped by the enormity of it. you'd be best served to contact a technician/tuner in your area, who likely has a refinisher that they know and trust if they don't do it themselves.

[eaustin1]

charleslang: the song is not recorded from the finished piano, although that's a fantastic idea for the next one! recording some audio of decent quality and putting it with the video would be a neat trick i'm not necessarily completely confident about, but i agree that it'd make the most sense.

[eaustin1]

sorry for missing some of these great comments!

martiabr: i'm the assistant technician...my father-in-law is the resident Jedi master! costs are tricky to estimate, of course...especially for strings, it depends on how big the piano is! bass strings are custom made, so that's not cheap.

gordonlikespie: one of my favorite parts is seeing how far an old pile of wood and metal can come, to being a beautiful and functional instrument! glad that worked for you!

[KawhackitaRag]

Cool! What did you guys do to the soundboard with regards to the crown/downbearing, bridges, etc.? Do you have a secret to bringing back the tone?

[libra051090]

Simply amazing, might soon be getting my hands on a 9 foot grand in a similar condition, wondering about the cost of restoring it, and whether someone with little/no experience in piano restoration should be trying to do so

Any thoughts?

[charleslang]

Is the song a recording from the finished piano? I sort of assumed it was, since we don't get to hear it being played in the video, but wasn't sure.  Thanks.

[lydnsz]

What's this song in this video? I like it.

[eaustin1]

as listed in the credits at the end of the video, the song is "Gitanerias" by Lecuona.

[gordonlikespie]

ours was a 1907 chikering grand in terrible condition, but after restoration, it looked great

[martiabr]

how much did it cost you to refurbish the piano and how much of it did you do yourself. i would like to fix my piano. but i don't know where to start?

Help me!

[eaustin1]

We did it ALL ourselves, from stripping to keytop replacement, to pulling and gilding the plate, to re-staining the cabinet, to restringing...

Our biggest cost was probably the time: i would guess at close to a hundred hours. Materials would include stripper, glue, paint, new strings...

there are quite a few specialized tools and pieces of equipment involved, so it's not always a job that just anyone can do. It also must be done in a certain order based on accessibility.

[martiabr]

are you a piano technition?

What is the average cost of like strings, felts, and tuning pins.

[CaptnSC00BA]

Wow! thats a fantastinic job! i have a "stand-up" piano in my shed that is in similar condition to what this one WAS. I'm doing it up and i have done the keys. The body is slow going, its such a big job. Sometimes i wonder if it'll ever end. inspiring to see how well yours turned out.

Could you tell me how you cleaned the old paper stickers without damaging them? this is something i have worried about.

[eaustin1]

Thank you! It certainly is a big job...just watching it again i'm reminded how much time and effort it took just for a few of those frames!

As for paper stickers: we cleaned the soundboard using a diluted industrial-strength degreaser. we used it very gently and VERY diluted over that sticker, although you can tell that we still left it darker than the rest. we could have gone even farther with cotton swabs and such. The fallboard sticker we stripped off and simply ordered a replacement.

[jvalerag]

Very interesting video. Nice photos and music.

[eaustin1]

thanks! the piano was a big, fun job...as was putting this video together!