Ivers and Pond grand

This piano is my current project and has been quite a challenge in that it is dissimilar in construction to other pianos in many ways. It has a "triplex" scale which is more of nuisance than a feature. It is very well built structurally but lacks in other ways. The action is a "W,N, & G" which is no problem. The piano has no agraffes at all which indicates cutting expense on its production. I don't expect much sound from the piano as it is barely 5 ft. in length and sounded quite " tubby" before disassembly.

Steinway "O" Grand completed Nov. 5th '08

This piano built in 1918 was one of the nicest "O"s that I have rebuilt. I am glad that Steinway and Sons decided to re-introduce this model and eliminate the "L". This piano has a full, rich bass accompanied by a clear, bell-like tonality in the upper registers.
The action was restored using Tokiwa wippens with turbo flanges. (my first time not using genuine Steinway wipps)
The action is lightening quick and perfectly weighted out thanks to the auxilliary spring. The hammers are from Steinway and much nicer to voice than they used to be.
The finish is a polished lacquered mahogany perfectly executed by David Tennett.

final fit of the ribs to piano rim

This picture shows the ribs with their final shape and fit to the rim. The next step will be to glue the ribs to the soundboard while maintaining their exact position in relationship to the rim. ( not an easy task on a 9' piano)

fitting new board to the rim

This photo shows the new board fitting the rim almost exactly. After continued drying, the board will shrink somewhat and and require thin maple shims to produce the same fit. This process creates a very tight fitting board which has superior resonance and tonal quality after the equilibrium moisture content has stabilized.

fitting the ribs to the rim

Here's a shot of fitting the ribs to the rim. They have been crowned to a radius of 60'.

Replacing the soundboard in a Steinway D

Here's a couple of pix showing the size of the soundboard, and the new board as a mirror image of the old one. The high treble section of this board is morticed into the rim. Although I have seen a few other makes with this feature, I have never seen it in a Steinway Grand. If someone out there has , I would like to discuss the methods that they used for removal and installation of the new board. The pinblock was also morticed into the treble end of the Rim.

trying to add a photo

Well, it looks like I finally got a picture to load onto this blog site. I have a feeling that the size of the file is very significant when uploading. More pix to follow after I make the files smaller.

1880 Steinway Concert Grand

If anybody is interested in seeing photos of the various stages of reconstruction of A 1880 Steinway "D" concert grand piano, I hope to be able to supply them shortly after setting up this Blog. I just found out 3 minutes ago what a blog was. I asked my 16 1/2 year old daughter what it was and she didn't know either. I clicked on Blogger and found out immediately and now I've set up an account.
I'm not actually sure if I can even put pictures on this site, but first, I guess I'll have to see where this text is going.