Day 19 – Friday, June 18:

Goals: Get an assessment of how I’m doing and suggestions for proceeding (or recommendations for how not to proceed).

Music: Chet Baker collection, disks 2, 3, and 4.

I had a gentleman who is semi-retired and now works on and tunes pianos visit yesterday to have a look at my piano and the work I’m doing on it. The long and short of it, was, I’m doing fine and seem to be proceeding at a good pace and in a systematic and organized fashion that will, in the end, greatly benefit the piano. He basically told me that everything I’ve done so far is more or less how he would have done it, and he said I showed a lot of energy and discipline in my approach.

So, I discussed a few things that have to be done yet, and he concurred with my ideas and said he felt I was on the right track. He also said there was a possibility that my piano was built in the fashion of a Steinway, as it was probably an OEM piano that was manufactured by someone else and assembled and sold by C. H. Stone & Co. He theorized that would explain the two different numbers, such that, the 1498 that is all over the piano was the manufacturer’s serial number, and the 6345 in front is the purveyor’s serial number. That seems logical to me.

Anyway, with the vote of confidence, I proceeded to remove the hammers from the action assembly, only breaking one in the process. (Damn!) I was amazed to discover a boatload of small felt pieces here and there that will have to be replaced to bring the piano back up to snuff. Much of it is visible in this picture. (Jefferson is keeping an eye on the broken hammer for me.) (Only cats know why they do what they do.)

Really, they put felt everywhere on these things. Little tiny squares, little puffy circles, landing pads, cushioning pads, strips underneath, strips on top, just rife with felt. That’s fine. I mean, it’s no big deal to remove and replace, but I’m buying German-made100% wool felt, and that stuff’s not cheap! I would say, as the expenses pile up, it is looking more and more as if it will be difficult to recoup all of the money I put into it.

Just as well. After pouring my life into it, I’ll probably want to keep it, at least for a while.