Because I have no brains and no shame, I long ago decided I'd try and save this piano after it couldn't be a piano anymore.
The piano in question is an 1880s German Ronisch. I belonged to my grandmother and then my mother. Story goes, my Nana bought it when she moved into a proper house. She used to turn the lights off at night and play and sing to my grandpa in the dark. When he died (before I was born), she couldn't bear to play it for a long time. Eventually my mother grabbed off her and started learning seriously while I was a kid. It's been rebuilt once, but about 8 years ago, it stopped holding tune properly for my mother's piano teaching business. She passed it onto me. For the last 4 years, our Piano tuners (Tony and Steve Lette) has been making it last longer as a favor to my mother. The other week, it finally gave up the ghost. Multiple notes started dropping tune (F#s curiously) and sticking. We decided enough was enough. So there's new piano in the loungeroom... 2 weeks before my kids piano exams!
The piano is so old, the keys have ivory veneers on them. They'll go to the tuner for restorations/repairs on other old pianos. Ivory can't be bought or sold, so it's the only way he can source it. My mother also wants the bottom octave as a momento, as well as a few other bits. The black keys are all ebony. So there's a million thing I can do with that.
So the other day I started pulling it apart. The external panels, action, keys and the like all came out of the piano in about 15min. That's the easy bit. Things got more complex when I wanted to remove the strings. I was warned I needed to loosen them for safety sake. That's where the mission began. To begin with, the best I could do was this 6mm spanner...
Suffice to say. I was going ok, but it took ages. Gotta cook dinner now, but I'll show you more later.
The piano in question is an 1880s German Ronisch. I belonged to my grandmother and then my mother. Story goes, my Nana bought it when she moved into a proper house. She used to turn the lights off at night and play and sing to my grandpa in the dark. When he died (before I was born), she couldn't bear to play it for a long time. Eventually my mother grabbed off her and started learning seriously while I was a kid. It's been rebuilt once, but about 8 years ago, it stopped holding tune properly for my mother's piano teaching business. She passed it onto me. For the last 4 years, our Piano tuners (Tony and Steve Lette) has been making it last longer as a favor to my mother. The other week, it finally gave up the ghost. Multiple notes started dropping tune (F#s curiously) and sticking. We decided enough was enough. So there's new piano in the loungeroom... 2 weeks before my kids piano exams!
The piano is so old, the keys have ivory veneers on them. They'll go to the tuner for restorations/repairs on other old pianos. Ivory can't be bought or sold, so it's the only way he can source it. My mother also wants the bottom octave as a momento, as well as a few other bits. The black keys are all ebony. So there's a million thing I can do with that.
So the other day I started pulling it apart. The external panels, action, keys and the like all came out of the piano in about 15min. That's the easy bit. Things got more complex when I wanted to remove the strings. I was warned I needed to loosen them for safety sake. That's where the mission began. To begin with, the best I could do was this 6mm spanner...
Suffice to say. I was going ok, but it took ages. Gotta cook dinner now, but I'll show you more later.
