Reconditioning

For a piano to sound and play well it is of great importance for it to not only be tuned, but for it to be Regulated and toned. Often the difficulties pianists experience with piano playing are not because of their bad playing but the fact that their piano is badly out of adjustment. I am lucky to have a Concert playing history that gives me a clear understand of the relationship between the Technique of Piano Playing with Piano Regulation and Toning.
To day all makes of piano action found in pianos will look virtually the same as each other, so why does one piano play better than another? The subject is highly complex, but we can narrow the main reason down to “Regulating”, and accuracy of assembling component parts.

Regulating is the process of adjusting thousands of parts in the piano action. It is of paramount importance that this process is carried out with detailed precision and deep understanding of the technique of piano playing.

A piano may be more than 75% out of adjustment, and it will still play, but under these circumstances it will be very difficult to produce the sound we would like.

I remember being in a fantastic music store in Finland. I played two new pianos that stood side by side. One had a top quality action but was a cheap piano. The other piano I considered to be the finest make of piano in the world. When invited, I leaped at the chance to play the very expensive piano first. It was horrible. It just was not possible to play soft passages, nor was it possible to make notes sing out with a beautiful singing tone. When it came to play fast repeated notes, I gave up. I then played the cheap piano. It was beautiful, “How could the cheap piano play better than the expensive one? This was a great example of the importance of “Regulating”.

Even if a piano is not played it will slowly keep going out of adjustment over a period of time. The keys sit on felt washers; the hammers rest on felt; felt dampers press against the strings. When the felt becomes compressed, the piano will be out of adjustment and it will be difficult to play. This will happen to all pianos. In this store in Finland, the very high quality expensive piano would have been in the Store for a long time waiting for a wealthy person to buy it. The felt would inevitably have compressed over that time and would have made the piano out of adjustment. This is an example of why we hear so often conflicting stories about the same make of piano. ”A piano is only as good as the way it has been regulated”.

Some manufactures of piano actions will use softer felt. Soft felt will make the action more forgiving and flexible to play, if it is perfectly adjusted. The draw back is that the soft felt will go out of adjustment quickly, and then the piano will not be nice to play.

One piece of felt can look like another, but the way the felt responds after three years of piano playing may be very different. Piano makers round the world will buy their felt from different suppliers. As an example China does not like buying materials from anywhere other than from China. Europe has over three hundred years experience of piano making Pianos.

Hundreds of nickel-plated pins become tarnished after a short space of time, particularly if the piano is not played very much. Tarnished key pins will cause friction, and make the piano heavy to play, and create sluggish repetition.

Rather like the example of different felt suppliers, we have the same example with nickel-plated pins. They may all look the same but a nickel-plated pin from a different supplier may tarnish twice as fast, or even worse become badly corroded.

There are thousands of very important adjustments to make a piano play well. One simple little thing that can be done to transform the way a piano plays is to take the finest nickel plated key pins; hand polish them; Teflon coat them, and very finely impregnated the felt with Teflon, the piano response will be transformed and the tarnishing problem greatly reduced.

Piano makers are able to able to specify the weight of the hammer to suite different sized pianos. The felt may be compressed to different pressures, for producing a bright or mellow sound, and for an even brighter sound, chemical hardener reinforcing agents may be added to the felt.

Under felt was used for the proper shaping of the top felt in the early days. This process and tradition, although not necessary today because of modern hammer making machines, has become standard on quality hammers.

Toning

Toning is the process to make a piano have a bright sound or a soft more mellow sound.

The two different sounds will depend on the size and acoustics of the room. It is also the process to achieve making the piano produce greater flexibility of tonal control.

The process is to push needles in to the felt which will soften the felt. The more forgiving hammer will in turn produce a softer sound. These processes can allow us to change the sound in different areas of the piano. As an example you might like your piano to have a softer sound in the bass and brighter sound at the top end. This work is usually done in the room by marrying the acoustics of the piano with the acoustics of the room. Often Half of the quality of the piano sound can be in the acoustics of the room, and consequently a piano may sound very good in one room and very bad in another.

The following are a random sample of some of the Regulating adjustments. Most of these adjustments will take several attempts before they are correct. Makers of very expensive pianos will regulate a piano several times before it leaves the factory. The process needs to be repeated until the adjustments are stable.

Weigh and adjust tension weight of 70 damper springs to correct weight in either Centi Newton’s or grams. Uneven Spring tension will cause uneven tonal control. Too strong damper springs will make the key heavy to play and playing softly will be difficult to control.

Check Key bed position for correct Capstan lift point. Key bed must be in correct position in relation to action. Often it is not accurate. If one millimetre out, the action will feel sluggish and lumbering. Tonal control (playing loud and soft or making a melody note sing out) will be difficult.

Incorrect and uneven damper lift timing will cause the Key to feel either heavy to play, or conversely too light, with poor control and poor repetition. The damper lift timing will often vary from not to note. The result is the piano will not produce the sound that you asked it to produce. To make this adjustment the action has to be unbolted and moved away from the strings; the spoon adjusted, and the action replaced. Then check damper lift. May take several repeat attempts before adjustment is perfect. There are approximately 70 dampers to be adjusted.

Check that balance rail pin is not rubbing inside the key. Chisel out if rubbing.

Check Balance rail keyhole. Expand wood if hole is too loose and burnish out hole if too tight. Too loose will cause many unwanted knocking and buzzing noises from any one of the many parts. (Not all of the parts will cause unwanted noises, but bear in mind there are over eight thousand parts in a piano action.)
Check correct action Rake. (Action distance from strings. Action feet blocks).
Check damper down bearing onto string and adjust.
Check damper angles to strings for perfect damping and adjust.
Polish 88 balance rail pins.
Polish 88 Front Key Pins.
Polish 88 Capstan Screws.
Teflon coat 88 Capstan Screws.
Teflon coat 88 Balance Rail Pins.
Teflon coat 88 Front Key Pins.
Check 176 front key bushing felts for over tightness, replace if worn or adjust Key Pin.
Check 176 Balance Rail key bushing felts for over tightness replace if worn.
Adjust Balance Rail Pins for correct angle if incorrect.
Impregnate Teflon 176 Felt Front Key Bushings.
Impregnate Teflon 176 Balance Rail Felt Key bushings.
Impregnate Teflon 88 Lever Heal Box Cloth.
Teflon coat 88 key balance rail holes.
One Third Cut 88 Balance Rail Felt Washers.
Level 52 White Keys to tissue paper shim washer tolerance.
Adjust height 36 Black keys to tissue paper shim washer tolerance.
Adjust Depth of Touch 52 White Keys.
Adjust Depth of Touch 36 Black keys.
Adjust Repetition Rail.
Adjust damper checkrail.
Adjust 88 Tie tape wires
Adjust 88 Checks for alignment to balance hammer and adjust angle and check distance
Adjust 88 set off screws
Adjust 88 capstan screws
Adjust hammer rest rail.
Check for ticking knocking and buzzing noises etc May be cause by any one of thousands of different component parts. Often the problem is not visible because the problem is a part inside another part. Example: The metal barrel inside the damper barrel. Or a balance Hammer glued into balance hammer Shank or Shank into the Butt or Hammer Head.
When key is free from friction weigh and balance key weight. 88 keys.
Check for over compressed Jack Rest Butt felt. Replace Butt or Butt felt\.
Check front key bushings for correct dept of bushing. Uneven length will alter friction and intern balance weight
Check for 88 front key bushings for tightness and ease if not free of friction
Check for 88 balance rail key bushings for tightness and ease if not free of friction.
Check 528 Centre Pins. Replace if too tight or too loose caused through tarnish or ware.
Check Half Blow Rail Flange Pins for tightness.
Align Hammer stroke angle with 88 Strings (unscrew But Flange disconnect Balance hammer tape and shim But flange, if required).
Align Lever angle stroke (unscrew Lever Flange and shim Lever Flange).
Tighten 88. Hammer Screws
Tighten 88 Lever Body Screws.
Tighten Action Rail Screws.
Tighten Action Bracket Screws.
Tighten 70 Damper Drum screws.
Tighten set off rail screws.
Tighten 88 Butt Plate screws.
Tighten 70 Damper Lever Flange Screws.
Teflon coat 70 Damper Lift Spoons.
Clean and Teflon coat Jack Set off knuckle.
Clean and Teflon coat Jack head.
Clean and Teflon coat repetition lever for Roller.
Clean Roller and lightly Teflon coat Leather.
Adjust and Tighten 70 Damper Lift Wire screws Grand Piano.
Polish and Teflon Coat Damper Wire. Grand Piano.
Adjust 88 Capstans Hammer heights to strings Grand Piano.
Check hammer rest rail height and tighten screws Grand Piano.
Adjust 88 Rocker Regulating screw Grand Piano.
Adjust Repetition spring for correct tension Grand Piano.
Adjust 88 Repetition Regulating Screws.
Adjust approximately 70 pedal damper lever lift screws or wires.
Adjust 88 Jack Regulating Screws Grand Piano.
Adjust 88 Hammer back Checks Grand Piano.
Adjust 88 Repetition spring tensions Grand Piano.
Adjust Damper Slap Rail Grand Piano.
Check 70 Damper Lever Body Flange Screws are tight.
Check 70 Damper Wire Screws are tight.
Check Action Mount Screws for tightness.
Adjust 88 Escapement Dollies.
Adjust 88 Drop Screws.
Adjust Damper Rest Rail.
Adjust Pedals.
Polish pedals.
Clean strings replace where necessary.
Lacquer iron frame.
Polish and lacquer Brass Work.
Replace rubber cushions.
Reface hammers.
Tone Hammers (Renner estimate 8 hours work).
Tune 2-3 times till stable (Second hand Pianos).


This work is of great importance. If this work is not carried out, the piano will play, but not very well. For the pianist this is very frustrating, and piano playing progress will be limited.