TuningRepair.Com

 714-636-3122

 Piano tuner, movers, restorers 

Orange County &  Los Angeles

Welcome to Leo's

   PIANO RESTORATION

Piano refinisher and Piano restorers in Orange County, in Los Angeles, in San Fernando Valley, in Mailbu, in Beverly Hills, in Laguna Beach

Leo's piano rebuilding covers partial to full restoration. 

AA 6' Chickering Grand Piano under rebuilding

 See our

RESTORED PIANOS

 

BEFORE   AFTER Piano: a 1928 Steinway & Sons piano Restoration done:  Complete restoration inside and out: New hammers and dampers, new strings, rebuilt piano action, new key tops, piano refinishing   "Absolutely amazing transformation ! I never imaged piano refinishing could be like this." says Ron Adelman of Los Angeles, CA.

 

BEFORE   AFTER   Piano: a 1932 Steinway & Sons piano Restoration done:  Complete restoration inside and out: New hammers and dampers, new strings, rebuilt piano action, new key tops, piano refinishing   "Absolutely amazing transformation ! I never imaged piano refinishing could be like this." says Ron Adelman of Los Angeles, CA.

 

BEFORE   AFTER Piano: a 1896 Ronisch Grand Piano Restoration done:  Complete restoration inside and out: New hammers, dampers, new strings, rebuilt piano action, new key tops, piano refinishing   "I was thrilled to finally see the result. Leo's work is top quality craftsmanship as he claims alright. His fine choice of materials and piano refinishing is beyond my expectation." says Greg Stentson of Los Angeles, CA.

HAVE A SEAT

Sit back and i'LL tell you all about my Piano Restoration

 

WHY RESTORE AN OLD PIANO? At some point in the life of your piano it will be time to restore the action with new parts. If the instrument is used eight hours a day it may be only three years old when you need to start thinking about piano restoration. If you use it occasionally, it may still be good after twenty or more years. But new hammers usually sound better than old ones, so think of twenty years or so as maximum hammer life. Piano restoration can improve the action on many pianos significantly before that time as well. Shanks, flanges, wippens, cloth and key bushings may also be worn or damaged by time and humidity changes. If the keys move side to side, the hammers have deep grooves, the action makes rattling noises when you play or the keys are heavy and unresponsive, it may be time to rebuild. An action rebuild job should include replacing the parts, regulating, balancing, tuning and voicing. If your piano's action isn't as fluid as you would like, it may be time to consider piano restoration. Over time, the condition of a piano may get beyond that which is repairable through regular maintenance.  This depends on factors such as the age, use, and location of the instrument.  The piano may lose its sound quality, its ability to hold its tuning, its look, and ultimately its value.  There are many ways to restore or rebuild your piano.  The main objective in the restoration or rebuilding of a piano is to bring back the quality of the sound, precision and sensitivity of the action, and the look and value of the instrument.  Rebuilding is more extensive than reconditioning. In the case of a Grand piano, rebuilding always means a new pinblock, tuning pins, strings wire and bass, as well as new damper felt. The soundboard is repaired or replaced and a new finish is applied The casting or the plate of the piano is re painted or re guilded. Along with this is extensive tuning time must be allowed for stabilization of the piano both in the shop and in the home. Rebuilding is heavy work but precise work, therefore care must be taken to insure that each step in the process from dismantling the piano to fitting the pinblock to stringing the grand and everything additional in the process be done carefully and thoroughly. The result can be a wonderful addition to your home and is often a lower cost option to replacing the instrument especially if the instrument in question is of good quality. Piano construction is part art, part science, and when it comes to the rebuilding of a vintage instrument there are many opinions on the best way to handle certain modifications. Some rebuilders will not install a new soundboard, preferring to repair the existing one with shims. Even fewer will install a new pinblock since each of the piano keys requires from one to three strings, and each string requires a precisely drilled hole into a perfectly laminated piece of hardwood cut to an exact shape. Imagine having the first 150 holes drilled at exactly the right depth, size, and angle, then botching the next one and having to throw out the pinblock and start over. You can see why it's not something everyone does. While some people may think that there is no point to fix an old piano when there are many new, nice looking, accessibly priced pianos on the market - most professional musicians believe this to be a fallacy.  Informed people choose restoration because they value their vintage old pianos that were done with superior craftsmanship and superior materials.  Today, pianos have been re-engineered to incorporate particle board, plastics and polyester. The prime benefit of old instruments are the quality of the wood with which they were built.  Fine pianos manufactured before the second world war were made of quality woods. This wood was properly aged from 30 to 50 years, sometimes more, depending on the manufacturer.   The below inset describes  about precious old woods of yesteryears, what is coined "Old Growth Wood".   OLD GROWTH WOOD The wood used to create stringed instruments are critical to the sound they produce. The strings vibrate to create sound waves that are enhanced by the case or the body of the installment through which the vibrations pass. Listen to a violin made 150 or more years ago and then listen to one made today and you will hear a remarkable difference between the two. Craftsmanship plays a part but the richness in sound from the older instrument comes from the quality of the wood used to create it. The difference is old growth wood. Trees that grew undisturbed over 100's of years have a tighter more uniform grain than replanted forests. The sounds produced by violins, cellos, guitars and pianos are each dependent on the quality of the woods in the case their sounds pass through. That is one of the reasons we love to restore pianos that are over 70 years old. When the restoration is complete we have an instrument that looks good and sounds wonderful. This doesn't mean you should never buy a new piano, but if you have the option of buying a used 75 to a 150 year old piano, don't shy away just because of its age. When properly restored they can produce marvelous sounds that just cannot be matched by pianos made today. Call us to inspect any used piano you wish buy and we'll make sure it's worth the investment and that you get the best value for your money. Very few OLD GROWTH WOOD exist in Europe or North America today. The few that do exist are protected. The only sources for old growth wood are people who recover wood from the bottom of lakes or deep river beds which contain logs that sank years ago. Most are purchased by craftsmen to make high end handmade musical instruments and furniture pieces. If you have an old piano or other stringed instrument, care for it; it is something that cannot be re-created.   Old pianos were built almost entirely by hand, emphasizing the individuality of each instrument. Modern factories employ unskilled labor on an assembly line. Hence, the sound quality of a relatively inexpensive older piano can compete with the sound of the most expensive modern piano.  In the heydays of piano manufacturing (1840 - 1940 ), forests still yielded premium quality woods to make the piano case.  Some of the trees then used are now extinct or on the endangered species.  Veneers, like the Brazilian rosewood, are so rare that they are just not available.  Similarly, the soundboard materials then utilized are not available in quantities large enough for factory use.  Factories today have to resort to the lower ranked Sitka spruce to make their soundboard as opposed to the better-suited eastern white spruce. The majority of today's piano makers install a multi-laminate pinblock, boasting that it will not split or break. That statement is true, but technicians are facing a challenge every time they tune because of the large quantity of glue used in them.  Some pianos will not be tunable to satisfaction. With increasingly larger demand and the industrial revolution, transitory 'assembly-line' laborers will have replaced many skilled craftsmen in factories today, who, to boot, have to use less satisfactory, inferior materials such as the cheaper presswood, polyester and plastics.  Unfortunately, quality was compromised for quantity  American piano factories employed craftsmen who came thoroughly trained for the piano building art mostly from German speaking Europe.  Most of these proud craftsmen applied their acquired knowledge and skill for as long they lived.  Thus, well-trained, devoted and patient workers used the best of parts to make beautiful, long-lasting, quality pianos.  Out of this tradition came a richness and subtlety of tone seldom found in newer pianos. With time and regular use, with mistreatment and with much fluctuation of dryness and humidity, even the best working parts will wear away, metal components will age, fine wood will become brittle. The replacement of the piano parts will be required when the piano cannot perform at full expectation and doesn't look its best any more.  PIANO AGING SYMPTOMS Any piano built before WW II may be a good candidate for rebuilding.  Here are some of the symptoms of old age in a piano: Tuning pins are not holding very well particularly in winter months. There are dark oil like rings around pins of the pin block The piano has poor tone quality - tinny, buzzing noises. Some or all of the bass notes have no life left in them. The action is noisy and doesn't respond very well anymore. The keys plays unevenly The finish is dull and ugly with little cracks all over it. Damage to veneer or wood due to either too dry or too damp.   Why should I buy a restored piano over a new piano? Restored Pianos Have a superior tone compared to most modern pianos Have more elegant cabinets, more beautiful veneers - sometimes with intricate engravings They hold their value better NOT made with chip-board or 'MDF' board, nor do they have any plastic components Many have real Ivory-covered keyboards They were built by craftsmen using solid, seasoned wood to a high standard and thus have a life expectancy of 80-100 years before the need for restoration.   New Pianos The majority are built in the Far East, but also in the USA, China and Russia/former Eastern bloc countries. A number of smaller manufacturers in Western Europe still build pianos. The majority are mass-produced in assembly-line style factories. In order to keep manufacturing costs down, the quality of parts used varies, kilns are used to artificially 'season' wooden parts and even soundboards can be made out of multi-laminated wood! Cabinets are usually lacking in character or refinement They lose their value quicker, compared to traditional pianos. Be wary of cheaply-priced instruments with German-sounding names. They are likely to have been built in China or the former Eastern Bloc. In our experience, they are poorly constructed and have a limited life expectancy. TOP

A TOUR OF

PIANO REBUILDING

 A photo view

 

Gut piano interior

Repair or Replace old soundboard. The soundboard will often require a great amount of work.  It must first be stripped. Cracks must be repaired. There are several methods used for these repairs, depending upon the severity of the problem. The soundboard is the amplifier of tone.  In a quality vintage piano what we look for in a soundboard is crown [curve] and carry of tone.  Since spruce trees grow only 6 to 8 inches in diameter and all good soundboards are made of spruce it is necessary for a soundboard to be made of a series of boards. It is not uncommon for cracks to develop due to expansion and contraction as well as a result of glue joints drying out.  These problems are remedied by drying the board down and shimming with spruce shims.  The soundboard is then sanded down and refinished. When replacing the soundboard, careful attention is paid to the grain angle of the spruce, along with thickness and degree of edge taper. Superior moisture-resistant varnish and/or shellac is used on soundboard and pinblock to withstand humidity fluctuations. New white pine ribs are tested for a match to the weight and bending strength of the original rib. This kind of attention to detail assures a response characteristic true to its original design specifications. The end result is a finely rebuilt or restored piano with a rich and even tone which can be tailored to suit the tastes and abilities of exacting musicians.

Spray paint the harp The plate is, in a structural sense, the most important part of the piano and must be handled with extreme care.  The plate is the cast iron part which forms the harp of the grand piano. The plate is removed from the piano after the pins and strings have been removed. Once removed, the plate is washed, sanded, primed, scuffed, re-bronzed or repainted with a new "piano gold" paint, and the lettering is hand painted, and sealed with a clear protective finish.

Make new bridge NEW BRIDGES / BRIDGE REPAIR: As we all know, the bridge is one of the most essential elements of good piano tone. Each bridge is thoroughly inspected and either repaired or replaced to original factory specification. If the bridge is in excellent shape, then no repair or replacement will be necessary.

Recap bass and treble bridge The bridge is the long curved strip of wood with all of the small pins. The bridge holds the strings in their proper position and tension.  Broken or loose bridges, or with cracks running along the pin lines, are a very serious problem. Evidences of inferior bridges are weak, "muddy" or poor tone quality, inability to bring a string into clear pitch, and, in some cases, buzzing and rattling sounds. Bridges are replaced in the most severe cases. In most situations it is only necessary to remove the bridge pins, fill the cracks with rock-solid epoxy cement, and then replace the pins.  When done as a complete restoration these repairs are made with the plate removed. The final step is to refinish the soundboard.

Make new pin block

View of old and new pin block

New pin block retrofitted into piano NEW PIN BLOCK AND PINS: Each piano receives a new custom made pin block cut specifically for the piano and to original factory specification. Each pin block is of the diligent type. The block is then drilled and the new pins driven into place once the plate is installed. Since the pinblock is built into the piano, and all of the strings and the plate need to be removed  to install a new  one, it is of the highest priority that the finest materials be used.  I use the Falconwood pinblock. The Falconwood pinblock was developed over 40 years ago.  It is the best pinblock in the world.  I have been using it for 24 years and have never had one fail.  The Falconwood pinblock is unique in several ways.  It is the most dense pinblock available.  The density of a Falconwood pinblock is 1.0.  Other pinblocks never exceed .80 density.  This means the Falconwood Pinblock is 20% stronger When boring the Falconwood pinblock, a larger drill bit is used (.272).  As a result less wood around the pinblock is harmed when the pins are driven in thus adding years of life to your Falconwood pinblock. The Falconwood pinblock is multi-laminated (27 ply). A Multi-laminated pinblock is stronger and more stable than the common 5-ply blocks. So why doesn't everyone else install Falconwood?  Because of it's density it requires superior woodworking skills as well as more sophisticated tooling. It is also considerably more expensive. I use a 27-lamination Falconwood pinblock in all of my rebuilds, thus allowing us to give a 15 year guarantee on all rebuilding work performed.

Install new tuning pins Install new tuning pins into new pin block. (Klinke Diamond tuning pins are used)

Install new Strings NEW STRINGS: Each piano receives a completely new set of custom made strings. Both the table and bass are replaced.  Only industry standard Mapes strings are used.  When stringing, careful attention is given to the tightness of the coil on the pin so as to enhance tuning stability. felt the plate reinstall all new strings I gauged the diameter of each wire BEFORE removing the old ones.  I have the wire sizes diagrammed, and I replace them with new wires of the same size.  The bass wires had previously been sent to the supplier and replaced with a duplicate set of new bass wires. Traditionally, bass strings were wound by hand. With the advent of computerized machinery, these strings are now wound in factories and produce sounds adequate for most pianos. However, they lack the superb singing tone only found in hand-wound strings. For this reason, only hand-wound strings should be used for fine rebuilt pianos.

Install new felts Install new felts.  We have long lasting felts which does not get rotted by moths or other insects.

New Dampers Install new dampers

Hand Lettering the plate LOGO / LABEL REPLACEMENT: One of the final touches to any rebuild is the reapplication of all soundboard and fallboard logos, lettering, and serial numbers to the action and plate. All are replaced to match the original lettering and stenciling unless otherwise specified by the client.

New felt for keybed Completely cleaning and re-felting the frame.

Install new hammers and shanks The upper action is next. Hammer shanks and custom, premium hammers. The hammers are a very critical component of rebuilding since they are chiefly responsible for the tone of the instrument; only the finest will suffice.

Install new wippens The cradle is next. We install Renner wippens,

Hammer Shaping New hammers are stiff and must be shaped to produce a nice tone,

Remove old key covers Old white ivories are removed or polished

New black key covers Old blacks keys are repainted or new ones installed

New key covers New white new key covers are installed

New key bushings & Keyboard calibration New underfelts to keyboard and calibrate key dips.

Final Action assembly Putting all the parts together

Piano Regulation Regulation: After all the new parts are installed  the action is regulated to exacting standards.  This is a laborious step. A well regulated action is a pianists dream, allowing them control of both touch and tone.

Tuning Several tunings are given after repining and restringing the piano. New strings are very stiff and need to be stretched multiple times.

Quicky Answers for Dummies

 

 

 

 

What kinds of piano restoration are there?

Piano Refinishing - which restores only the body

Piano Reconditioning - which restores only the "engine"

Piano Rebuilding -  which restores both the body and the "engine".

Why restore a piano?

The  price is lower than new pianos.  Also,  restoring old pianos is preferable to buying new pianos because many old pianos were made from durable superior quality materials not found in modern pianos. 

 

 

 

The Perfect Pitch Piano Tuner 

Leo 714-636-3122  

 

Piano Tuning & Repair

Piano Moving

Piano Refinishing

Piano Restoration

 

"Life is like a piano.

What you get out of it depends on how you play it.”

 

 Hills, W

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since April 2005