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Left Pic – Dowels chiseled off, ready for drilling
Right Pic – Bottom screwed on. I was going to put screws down into the “tabs”, but the way the previous repair(not mine) was done, I’d virtually miss getting the screw into the “tab”, so I decided to leave well enough alone

Left Pic – Added some stain to area I had to sand around the tabs. Also stained the edge, the client’s dog chewed
Right Pic – Going to dowel the pedal support holes on the back. Notice the plastic screw expanders in the holes on the near side. Interesting idea, but NO, gonna dowel those holes, then re-drill

Forgot to post these next 2 pics earlier. Several of the keys, needed to be shimmed with a piece of veneer. Without shimming the Key Top would have been significantly lower than the Tail.

Left Pic – Veneer Shim about to be glued on
Right Pic- Shim glued on ready for Key Top

Left Pic – Drilling out and doweling “blown out” screw holes…Notice the mallet in the background? Family relative used to work in the Knabe Factory in Baltimore, MD. This was a mallet he used in the factory.

Right Pic – “Cleats” glued on backs of broken tabs to help stabilize them. “Blown-Out” screw holes filled with  glued dowels(larger holes) or glued-in wooden toothpicks(smaller holes)…old guitar repair technique.

Re-Gluing the Tails, probably 1/3 of the keys needed to be re-glued at the back end

Left Pic – Before Cleaning
Right Pic – After Cleaning

Left Pic – Bottom of pedal assembly as I got it, with 2 broken “tabs”, and chipped out back left corner
Right Pic – After cleanup, gluing and clamping

Left Pic – Key, Linen Glue Base, Key Top ready for gluing
Right Pic – 1st six glued up

Left Pic – Matching up missing Key Tops
Right Pic – All matched up, cleaned, and ready for gluing

Left Pic – Old linen glue base partially removed, after steaming. 
Right Pic –Glue base removed, scraped, and ready to go

Left Pic – 3 keys with previous “improperly done” repair attempts
Right Pic – Same 3 keys after removal of old glue

Left Pic – Remnants of old glue and linen Key Top bases
Right Pic – Keys with missing tops ready for replacements

Client has a 1920’s vintage Kurtzmann Grand with pedal assembly problems, missing key tops, as well as a few other things.

Damaged pedal assembly and missing or improperly replaced key tops

Disassembled damaged pedal assembly and white keys on shop bench

Missing or improperly replaced key tops

Steaming off improper key tops

Keeping track of properly matched key tops

Some of the hammers were “bouncing” when the key was struck. I had to adjust the let off buttons on each of those keys, so the let off would release and allow the hammer to fall down to the back check.

I had done a preliminary cleaning when I started, but vacuumed it all out again today.

The pedal lyre supports had “disappeared” at some point, so I made a couple. Nothing exotic, schools don’t pay for “exotic”. Also did the final tuning…broke another string(and replaced it), but oh well, the bane of an older piano.

All done! Not perfect, by any stretch, but definitely more usable than it was….which was basically un-usable.

Replacing a broken string. Picture above on left is using a Sciortino String Coiler to put a coil on the replacement string. Picture above right is after the coil is made.

Picture above left shows the string on the tuning pin, with becket about to be placed into tuning pin hole. In the above right picture, I’m tightening the string and using a Coil Lifter to make sure the coils stay tight up the tuning pin.

The bass section on this grand was extremely dead. I loosened and un-hooked each bass string, wrapped a coil like the one shown above, ran the coil up to the dampers, then back again. Re-hooked the string and brought up to pitch. Worked great….bass response tremendously improved. (Basically what I did was break up any corrosion between the wrappings on the string) Wish I could take credit for this, but sadly, read about the technique in a book. Sure glad it worked.

Mason & Hamlin Grand @ Wicomico MS

• Replacing broken strings
• Damper work
• Tighten soundboard crack(s)
• Other adjustments
• 2 Tunings

Estimated Completion – Late April

Mason & Hamlin Grand @ JMB’s Refurbished Auditorium

• Regular Tuning

Welcome to my Piano Tuning Website. After many years of selling, moving, renting, touching up, maintaining pianos at my “Real Job” (Salisbury Music), I have added Piano Tuning to my set of skills.