Why Disassemble an Upright Piano? | HOWARD PIANO INDUSTRIES

[@danielcoburn8635]

I have a 1910 Wellington upright. It survived a recent house fire, mostly smoke and heat damage, and a little moisture. I know nothing about pianos, I'm an artist, a model railroader, I don't play anything musical. I've taken this as a project for restoration. So far, I have disassembled the word panel and restored the beautiful finish. Going to KZbin "U", I'm learned enough to remove the actions, remove keys, perform felt replacement. I'm not saying I'm good at it, but at sixty years old, I've learned enough Im finding it fun and relaxing! This Wellington was a freeby from my sister in law, whom I had helped her move as a freeby to her. Looking at local sales sights, there are are enough free pianos out the to fill a warehouse. I figure the biggest reason is the weight of the piano. You can barely drag it out the door, much less to the curb or burn pile, and a general move is laborious and sometimes painful.

[@howardpianoind]

It certainly can be rewarding to bring some life back to an old instrument. One of the reasons that old pianos aren’t restored in many cases is that as you’ve probably learned, the process of restoring a piano is very time intensive and if you have to pay someone to do the work, the cost is prohibitive. Though if you want to do the work yourself it can be extremely rewarding.

[@chadlunders4898]

For an upright player piano it is much easier to move if you remove the player portion. While I'm at it I go ahead and remove the action and lower panel. Helps out a lot if you have stairs.

[@mikepettengill2706]

I am looking forward to what you have to say as you go forward. From how your are approaching 'piano disposal' in general, it sounds like you never use a piano for parts? You would always use new bushings, new felt for dampers and hammers and not reuse some that are in 'better' condition from another instrument? Is this the case?

[@howardpianoind]

Yes, It rarely makes sense to put all the labor into rebuilding a piano action and use used parts in the process. If the parts have been removed from another instrument they were probably removed because they have a fair amount of wear on them. I sometimes remove a sample of spare parts from a particular brand or model of piano that I am discarding and save them in a shoe box in case I need a spare part. However, piano parts hold up very well overall so most of the time they don't break, they just wear, so the need for used parts is minimal.

[@mikepettengill2706]

@@howardpianoind Is there some example of the standard of what is too worn? I may be completely wrong about my hammers and dampers hearing this. They do have deep looking grooves. Deep to me at any rate?

[@howardpianoind]

Many of the parts aren’t that expensive. The biggest “cost” to restoring a piano is the time and labor involved in doing the work. So spending the time would usually warrant spending the relatively small amount of money to put in new parts.

[@frq9941]

nice video very nourishing thanx

[@howardpianoind]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@ElikemTheTuner]

Did not hear any concrete reasons in this video. Might be better to give it out. But I await the next video

[@jorgeandrade20]

All the motives behind disposing of this piano are not things that could be easily addressed and/or fixed.