On Tuesday and Friday, I fiddled around with my piano most unproductively, and then sanded and applied shellac to two other inner rims. Bernard says that even though nobody will ever see the clean amber inner rims, he just can't let a piano out of his shop without being so thorough. What a guy.
Friday, 22 Jun 12
It was a fantastic week in the shop. On Monday, George came and worked on The Volkert with me for our 3-year anniversary. Afterwards, we ate 5 plates at Austin's Chez Zee, to the shock of our waiter. For our second anniversary, we went on the skycoaster with Dr. Mallard, and George nearly drowned in Lady Bird Lake during our first. Always a new adventure.
The most exciting task was replacing the short stick on the lid prop. Bernard, always helpful, offered us a beautiful nickel short stick to replace the original brass one. George and I cut it down to an attractive size, filed it off, and drilled a fitting hole in the lid with the appropriate forstner bit. Of course, we were in the good hands of Celeste the entire time.
On Friday, Osious and I were at the shop to receive a Model D from the Van Cliburn Foundation. Built in 1996 and picked by Van Cliburn himself, this is the youngest piano the shop has ever taken. The signature on the plate pictured below is by Henry Z. Steinway (1915-2008), the great-grandson of founder Henry E. Steinway (1797-1871).
On Tuesday and Friday, I sanded parts for a Model L. The highlight was Bernard showing me a great way to fix a dent. First, you stab the wood with a knife (pictured below), and pry it out towards the surface. Then you flood the area with superglue and force epoxy into the crack. After everything dries, it sands down nice and cleans up real purty.
On Monday and Thursday, I sanded the lid and the body of the Model L. Celeste, George, and I had stripped the lacquer from the body during the morning of June 18th, so I've seen it morph from a beat up black piano to the mahogany wood shown below. It had gotten quite scratched up from some railing at a church, so I filled the low spots with blue autobody filler. Bernard says it takes a lot of smurfs to make it.
On Monday and Thursday, Jack installed all the dampers on The Volkert. That means that most of the vibrations are now stopped when a key is released, which is a huge deal.
Meanwhile, I worked alongside Celeste in filling Mahogany pores and sanding 2 plates. At one point, Celeste and I, try as we might, couldn't get a row of agraffes to budge. Bernard helped us modify our tools and soak the joints, but to no avail. So then, guess what happened. He took the agraffe tool and undid them one by one, straight down the row with brute force. What a He-Man!
On Monday, Jack tuned The Volkert for the first time since it was strung, and Celeste and I reinforced the backchecks with superglue. On Thursday, the two of us stripped a Mason & Hamlin, and it was messy business. Pretty Celeste is pictured below.
Celeste and I rubbed out two soundboards and cleaned up some trapwork on Monday. I mostly worked alone on Thursday, leveling parts for the Mason & Hamlin. In the picture below, the black pieces to the music desk still need a lot of work.
It's August, the month Celeste and I turn a year older. Celeste brought a watermelon to share on Thursday, and we blended it at Bernard's place during lunch. Bernard also offered us vegetarian gumbo and rice made by Melissa, and it was terrific.
On Monday, I removed several deep fingernail scratches in the fallboard of the Van Cliburn piano. This meant I could be erasing marks made by (but not limited to) the following superstars: Alfred Brendel, Vladimir Feltsman, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Arcadi Volodos, and Andre Watts. I was the Zamboni following a clan of Michelle Kwans.
Jack came in on Monday and left The Volkert with a working sustain pedal. Pictured below in the keybed are some of the under levers and damper wires that are exposed during his work. George took me to the shop on Thursday so he could enjoy the beautiful atmosphere and hear me play on our piano. Celeste helped me glue new felt to the bottom of the fallboard, a task I did poorly a month ago.
Before I obtained a loan from my parents, George had promised me we could put The Volkert in the shop on August 13, the day I turn 30. As I type this entry, it is August 10th, and my piano is near completion. When it's ready, it will have a nice new home. Two days from today will mark my one year anniversary of working at Mollberg Piano Restoration. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
END PART IX
This is a beautiful pic of underlevers. It's fun to ask very smart people to identify such things from such photos. They know it is something important, but that's it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea and the use of your lamp, Jack! It's a fun photo to end the segment on.
DeleteCute. Your webpage allowed my incorrect spelling of my webpage. I had typed austinbeebelpers instead of austinbeehelpers.
ReplyDelete