Steinway S 334968 Bridge Work

A lot of time has been spent recapping the bridges. First the old tops of the bridge are cut off, and new caps are clues to the original bridge body. Then the bridges must be aet to their proper height. This is called setting the bearing. Then the new caps must be planed to their proper thickness, and finally the notches and pins need to be added.

New Bridge Caps Installed

Setting Bearing

Planing Bridge tops

Notching Bridge Caps

Completed Bridges, Ready to Glue Onto Soundboard.

Steinway S 334968 Soundboard pressed

Steinway S #334968 Soundboard Ribs

The soundboard ribs are notched into the shelf of the rim where the completed soundboard will be glued. I take great care in individually fitting each rib to the piano rim shelf. The ribs are also dimensioned to the proper width and thickness. When this is completed, they are indexed and prepared for gluing onto the spruce panel.

Steinway S #334968 A Soundboard is Born

A new soundboard begins with 13-18 pieces of quarter sawn Sitka Spruce from North West USA. These thin strips of wood begin at aprox. 1/2" thickness, and need to be edge glued to form a sheet of spruce that will become a soundboard.I start with gluing up 2-3 pieces that become about 12" in width. I end up with about 5-6 of these pieces.

After the glue has cured, I plane these to the desired end thickness, in this case 5/16". These 12" pieces are edge glued together until the full sheet is completed.

Then, the old soundboard is used as a pattern to select the proper grain angle, and an outline is traced so that the new board can be cut to it's shape. The fresh glue joints are sanded to remove any squeeze out and to smooth any slight unevenness. A new soundboard panel has been created.

Steinway S 334968 Board and Block Out

Removing the old soundboard has further revealed that at some time in the past this piano was subject to very high humidity, as the glue joints are all loose. This makes for easy removal, and verifies the fact that the old board is beyond repair. Also removed was the pinblock, and the bridges .

Steinway S 334968

I have recently begun a total rebuild of a Steinway model S. This project will include a total remanufacture including refinishing.

After the dampers are removed, lots of measurements are taken and recorded before the strings and tuning pins are removed. Finally the cast iron plate is removed.

Meet my grandson Benjamin

I was excited today to have my grandson help me with real piano work for the first time. He has been in my shop before, but never to do real piano work. His first job...installing bridle straps in a spinet action. He later helped me install a humidity control system in a grand piano. He is a very quick learner, and knows how to handle a screwdriver! He also had the experience of cutting some metal rods with a hack saw. Grandpa had to help a bit with that. I'm sure there will be more projects in the near future that Benjamin can help with.