1843 Erard , 8 foot concert grand piano

This is Erard, serial #15908, built in 1843, as it looked when it arrived in my shop from Period Piano Center, for a total rebuild. Had this instrument been in original condition I would not have been interested in rebuilding it. However numerous interferences, and modifications, mostly with the idea of making the instrument hold more tension, have reduced this piano to a point at which it can no longer be considered a true artifact of the makers original intent.

The poor condition of this instrument, in some ways, makes it an ideal one for study, and my ulterior motive was to make a set of engineering drawings, for the purpose of making replicas.

Some guidelines I have set for myself in the rebuilding of this instrument;
It is better to remove whole assemblies , where they are damaged, from the instrument in one piece for conservation rather than add to them, or patch them. These assemblies can then be replaced with copies. For instance, rather than re-capping a section of damaged bridge, it is better to replace the entire bridge with a replica. In this way no information is lost.

Replica assemblies will be just that, replicas, and when they are not, this will be documented. Replica assemblies will be installed so that the installation is reversible. They will also be installed so that there is no modification of the original adjacent structure, i.e. holes created by the use of fasteners.

Some of the structures and parts that will be recreated in the restoration of this instrument;
Pin-block stretcher assembly.
Soundboard and bridges, damaged.
Hammers, missing.
Plate support hardware, missing and damaged.
Parts of the action, missing and damaged.

The next post will illustrate the initial documentation and disassembly of the instrument.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
I no longer joint sound-board panels with the machine, ultimately the hand plane does a better job. Unlike the hand plane, the machine Jointer produces a series of little scoops, the frequency of which depends on the feed rate of the work. A dull machine also tends to crush the wood cells, rather than cutting through them, which can cause a poor glue joint. At least one manufacturer of pianos is still jointing sound-board panels this way. In the first picture you can see the very simple jig, or shooting board, that I use for jointing thin boards. On some, more traditional shooting boards, there might be a wooden hook at one end to hold the work. My jig uses small C-clamps (see below). With the work clamped in place the board can be planed with the long, 24 inch, jointer plane. This keeps the edge square, and saves the worker the trouble of balancing the plane on the thin edge of the board, were it clamped vertically.  How force is applied to the hand plane, determines whet
Read more
Image
As I will be gluing the sound-board together in this next step, it seems an appropriate place to stop and talk a little bit about glue. Many restorers and conservators talk very negatively, and vehemently so, about AR, or Aliphatic Resin, glues. One major complaint about this type of glue is that it creeps, and that joints under constant stress will eventually fail. In thirty years of cabinet making, over ninety modern sound-boards, and two new modern instruments, one weighing over 2000 lbs., I have yet to see a single joint fail as a result of creep, although I am well aware that there are others who do not share this experience. In every case where I have replaced a modern sound-board, the original board failed as the result of the use of animal glues. One other often cited problem is that joints made with AR glues are not invisible. Let me assure you, that properly constructed joints assembled with AR glue, are as invisible as they would be with any other adhesive. Having said
Read more
Image
Here is a picture of the ribs roughed out, the central spine consists of two pieces (Spruce) that will later be steam bent, and glued, the top bridge is made in a similar fashion. A modern multi laminate bridge can be made cold, and will hold its shape, but with only two laminations, there would be a large amount of spring-back. Below the steaming/laminating form takes shape out of layers of plywood, one side is a single piece attached to a stationary base, the remaining being individual movable blocks. The offset between the blocks is 30 mm, which is the width of the bridge before final shaping. Above the sides of the steam box before assembly, the box is eight feet long, by about six by six inches, just large enough to accommodate the long thin strips of the bridge and spine. Below; the box assembled. The parts to be bent are suspended on a row of half inch Maple dowels that span the interior of the box allowing the steam to penetrate from all sides. Steam comes from a
Read more