ClassicPiano Gayle's Blog

26 January 2007: A Testimonial to the Old Upright

Just this week an old H.P. Nelson upright left our workshop to return home to its awaiting player(s). It always does my heart good to rehabilitate these old neglected beings and make them useful family members once again.

So often Grandma’s old piano is kicked to the curb by one generation and then brought back by another and this piano is a fine example of such a case. At 110 years of age this H.P.Nelson had experienced much life passing by and had become a wreck by the time it arrived at our workshop. Mice were the latest inhabitants and had thrived inside their private world until the piano was rescued from a storage unit.

The clean up of such debris is one of the downsides to working on old uprights but after suiting up in protective clothing and giving it a thorough blow-out – the real work began. When the piano movers brought this one in and took it off the dolly, the bottom board fell off and left the piano listing backwards. When the piano was initially inspected there was no way to know this would happen but it was clear there was a lot of damage from the mice. The pedals were broken and there was no longer any pedal rod levers even there.

Luckily I took a few ‘unknowns’ into the inspection/repair estimate and covered this rather large surprise. A new bottom board was made and all new trapwork fabricated and installed. No small task that but in the end it was beautiful and functioned as it should for the player. While the piano was on its back we twisted the bass strings to brighten them up and get some more volume. A few cracks in the soundboard had caused loose ribs so they were glued and tightened back to the soundboard. Once the structure was put right and it could stand up on its new casters, the mechanical issues could be addressed.

The ivory key tops were restored and the action made functional again – no new parts involved just rehabilitation to the old. Because it had not been tuned in many years a pitch correction was called for which involved three tunings to bring it up to concert pitch. It held the tuning without any problem – miraculous really when you consider that a new piano is given a life expectancy of 40 years.

The last thing was to give the beat up walnut case a good cleaning. A light sanding to remove deep scratches and to even out the finish was first, then a rub down with fine steel wool finished the clean up. Howard’s Restore-A-Finish is the best product for this particular job and is easily applied with a soft cotton rag. It makes the finish look nice and even, removing all scratches and blemishes. It was beautiful when complete.

Best of all it sounded like a big upright should. The singular tonal quality of the old upright always surprises and exceeds my expectations when they come back after such repairs. This piano was no exception and I played it happily until it left our shop.

This entire project took about one month and cost the client $900.00 (not including the moves). Not bad for bringing back Grandma’s old upright piano.

Stay tuned for more!