Paul's Pianos

At a loose end this evening ?
How about a trip to Cardiff Cathedral…

( not Llandaff Cathedral )

Where, tonight , you can listen to our Yamaha U1 being played in duet with a reed organ ( harmonium ) and accompanying vocals from
Cardiff Chamber Choir.

On a day that was forecast 70% rain, we were not sure this removal would go ahead ( rain can mean a cancellation when we move pianos up/down steps )
We were lucky, and all went smoothly.

We were lucky with the weather for this move.
A nice smooth delivery.
Hope they don’t want it moved back up at some point.

This is why you should wash your hands before playing your piano.
This is finger grease and general dirt.
The piano is having a deep clean on the keys today.

A nice little challenge on our last (?) removal of the year.

An ingeniously, fiendish solution to a stiff pedal mechanism that’s been scraping away for fifty years, or so.
Surprisingly, when I removed the hand made complication of springs and discovered one FELT WASHER missing …. Replacing the washer sorted all problems and the scraping of ‘metal on wood’ is no longer an issue.
Could just as easily have been fixed with a bit of cardboard with a hole in it !

From St. Arvan’s to Hay on Wye. Another awkward removal done safely.

😢 Sad day…
no more music from this one.

A nice day out, if a little challenging.
The handrails had us in a few tight spots on the turns , but all went smoothly in the end with no bumps.

Replacing a set of worn damper tail cloths on an American ’Baldwin’ .
This is the second time this piano has had this work done since it was built in 1981.
The dampers are activated by a small spoon shaped piece of metal which pushes against the damper tail cloth.
The cloth has worn excessively and the spoons were getting stuck in the hollows in the cloth.
This was causing a very clumpy feel to the piano and some notes would also get stuck ‘on’.

It’s time to put your feet up for a bit…..
This piano is having a resin applied to the tuning plank. It’s a two day/visit process.
Tuning planks dry out over time and sometimes split.
As they dry out they lose some of the tightness holding the pins in the plank.
This solution was chosen as the piano had so many loose pins that to put larger pins in would’ve been a week’swork.
I’m also regluing 9 key tops.

Once again …. with feeling.
The Congress Theatre Steinway model B grand piano gets its second tuning.
This tuning is more stable and more precise, and now capable of tomorrow’s classical performance.

Tuning the piano for the Congress Theatre, Cwmbran.
The first tuning since Covid Lockdown means a bit of extra care and attention is needed to get the best result.
An annual tuning is the minimum recommended maintenance to keep a piano stable for good results in tuning.