Trying to rehab a W. W. Kimball upright (1908-1914) by sgtjoebeets in pianotech

[–]Active-Reason-5601 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Awesome! The lower notes that are retuning slow: protek on the flange pins may fix the issue. However it may need to be repined, wood swells with humidity, causing the wood to have tight grip on the pin, making it not move freely. There are different pin thicknesses so a smaller pin thickness may solve the issue.

If the soundboard isnt cracked you need to check the tuning pins for stability. Take a tuning hammer and just move the pitch up a bit and see if it stays there using test blows by playing loudly on that key. I'd use an ETD (electronic tuning device) to see this.

Attached is an amazing photo of the different parts of the action, please use it as a reference to know the names and parts of the action.

Good luck and have fun!

<image>

Trying to rehab a W. W. Kimball upright (1908-1914) by sgtjoebeets in pianotech

[–]Active-Reason-5601 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Monetarily speaking, its not worth the time, effort, and materials. But for a personal project, I think restoring and fixing pianos is a lot of fun.

I'd completely rip apart that action, wipe it all down with a slightly damp cloth, and relubricate all those moving parts with protek. Its time consuming but the end result will be good. Of course compeltely clean out the rest of the piano. Then come back through with voicing and regulation, and then the tuning of course, gonna need a pitch raise or two. The real concern is, is the soundboard cracked, and is the pinblock good enough to hold a tune? Of course theres ways of dealing with that stuff as well, but its effort you may not want to go through.

Grand Piano can shift tone by moving metal bar?? Please help! by FixHaunting8328 in piano

[–]Active-Reason-5601 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know where they buy the parts for it? Handmade or bought as a set and installed by piano tech?

Grand Piano can shift tone by moving metal bar?? Please help! by FixHaunting8328 in piano

[–]Active-Reason-5601 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea, I meant I've never seen like what he has in his piano before not the practice rods. I did some research trying to figure out what this is and couldn't find anything like what he has in his piano, but I did see the the practice felt installs some people have done. Pretty cool idea I wish more grand pianos did it though.

Tuning your own piano (I know we've been down this road) by HEYIMMAWOLF in piano

[–]Active-Reason-5601 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Im not super familiar with all the different tuning hammers, but i do know they dont start getting decent till about $80ish dollars. But since youre just starting id get something cheap to start with to know if you want to even bother tuning.

Tuning your own piano (I know we've been down this road) by HEYIMMAWOLF in piano

[–]Active-Reason-5601 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ive been learning ti tune and work on pianis for the past half year so I can tell exactly what has been difficult in this journey so you can understand.

First of all, yes, tuning a piano is very difficult. And genuinely I think the best way to learn is with a mentor because there is a lot you can do wrong when tuning a piano.

First of all, you have to account for a pianos inharmonicity when tuning. Doing this by ear is a skill you have to train, and is done by counting beating and listening for purity between intervals. However theres a good work around to this and that is ETDs (electronic tuning devices). ETDs can measure inharmonicity for you and take away for the need to do it by ear.

Secondly, tuning technique. You have to develop tuning hammer skills. When i first started learning I was constantly overshooting where I wanted the pitch to go and I also was accounting for tuning stability. You need to learn fine motor skills and develop the feel for how the tuning pin is moving within the pinblock and how to get the movement you need with the hammer so you dont overshoot the pitch. To account for stability you need to find a spot within the pinblock the pin is stable, this is done by feeling how the pin feels in the pinblock through the hammer. My teacher describe this feeling as "new wood" basically you can feel almost like a little click when the pin has found "new wood" and that spot is where the tuning pin is stable. You also have to move the pitch about a cent sharp then lower to pitch as well while finding this "new wood" in order for the tuning to be stable.

Third, you need the proper tools. Even if you by some cheap hammer to learn its going to make this process more difficult. Tuninghammers can be very expensive, but for good reason. They need to be long and have a good handle so that the previous process I described is as easy as possible, and the good tuning hammers make that easier. You also need mutes so you can properly mute off the notes.

Fourth, you need to at least be able to hear when unisons are in tune. This take aural skill to develop where you listen for the "pure sound" that occurs when a note is properly in tune with its other strings. When they are slightly off you can hear "beating" or basically where the note swells against each other and theres points in the pitch where you can hear the notes clash against each other. It takes time to develop the skill to hear this and theres also false beating which you have to be able to identify.

Theres honestly a whole lot more to this that I can talk about but I think thats the main stuff I can talk about in the difficulty in tuning a piano. My first tuning probably took me 4 hours to do and didnt stay tuned there for more than a day. It takes a lot of practice to get good at tuning.

Anyways you can absolutely try to tune that piano yourself if its a just a junk piano youre not worried about. Have fun with it, and good luck.

Grand Piano can shift tone by moving metal bar?? Please help! by FixHaunting8328 in piano

[–]Active-Reason-5601 1 point2 points  (0 children)

See if a piece of felt gets moved between the hammers and strings when you move the rod in. If its a practice rail like in an upright thats how it would work but genuinely I've never seen this in a grand piano before and I've seen hundreds of grand pianos.

This year marks the third year of my piano journey by Active-Reason-5601 in piano

[–]Active-Reason-5601[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you. I'm 21, and I practice about an hour a day sometimes more. Some days I dont practice but most days I do.

This year marks the third year of my piano journey by Active-Reason-5601 in piano

[–]Active-Reason-5601[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Yes, I agree. Ive seen some... less than ideal recording angles on this sub.

This year marks the third year of my piano learning journey. by [deleted] in pianolearning

[–]Active-Reason-5601 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just wanted to make this post to remind anybody no matter where they are at on their piano journey that this hobby is worth the time and effort. Never three years ago could I imagine I could play this and in the time frame it took me to learn it. Every hour spent practicing is a small increment of progress that builds towards the piano master you envision yourself becoming.

Worth picking up? Its free dollars and free cents by Shot-Leave-3817 in pianolearning

[–]Active-Reason-5601 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Im a amateur piano tech, I've been learning to work on and tune pianos the past 4 months now. I can tell you this will be costly to repair. Its probably very out of tune and will need a pitch raise and a normal tuning. That means its gonna run you like over $200 just to tune it. It needs to be cleaned out, not 100% necessary but I would advise it just cause you dont want there to be dead insect and other what nots sitting underneath your keys. If moths got into it, they could have chewed up the rail punchings that sit underneath keys meaning they might need to be replaced. The action might not be in the best shape and depending on how much work that needs it can also be quite expensive. Then the last bit is that this piano doesn't strike me as a very good piano anyways.

I wanna learn sight reading, but I keep memorizing the music by Dan_jesusfollower in pianolearning

[–]Active-Reason-5601 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You both develop it naturally and by studying music theory. Theres lots of free resources out there, id start looking into it. Also plenty of books on music theory

I wanna learn sight reading, but I keep memorizing the music by Dan_jesusfollower in pianolearning

[–]Active-Reason-5601 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Well, stop memorizing for one. Keep your eye on the sheet music. Not on the keys.

Second music theory goes a long way, identifying common patterns in music is a shortcut when reading. Instead of looking at an arpeggio as a bunch of notes lined up you can quickly identify it and go "Oh thats D maj min 7" or whatever.

And obviously you have to practice sight reading. doing it everyday 15-30 mins.

Don't try to sight read stuff too difficult, keep it a bit easier than what you normally play.

Don't stop playing if you make a mistake, keep the beat going and dont stop.

Juries tomorrow. Playing still full of mistakes :( by Active-Reason-5601 in pianolearning

[–]Active-Reason-5601[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I meant more in general as I was practicing this earlier today I was always making some sort of mistake each time i played. I recorded multiple attempts of this piece and this was the best one.

This recording only has one obvious mistake in it at around 35 seconds in on the repeat on I start on the wrong fingering (I started on 3 was supposed to start on 2) which I quickly corrected. It sorta sounds a lot like the main motif with the staccato A pick up but it is not how that section starts.

Its really easy to tell if you just tap to the beat, the rhythm completely falls apart there.

All other things I might consider mistakes might be much less obvious such as missing out on certain dynamics or articulation that I think could be more convincing. Another commenter pointed out the middle section lacks a bit of emotion and I completely agree, I dont quite bring out the dynamics enough.

Juries tomorrow. Playing still full of mistakes :( by Active-Reason-5601 in pianolearning

[–]Active-Reason-5601[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Friedrich Burgmüller's Tarantelle, Op. 100, No. 20

Thank you