Day 25 – Thursday, July 1 – A Full Day:

Goals: Do whatever can be done

Music: Bix Biederbecke’s “Bix and Tram” (Disks C and D); Art Blakey’s “A Night in Birdland, Volume 1" (which is also disk 3 of the Complete Blue Note and Pacific Jazz Recordings of Clifford Brown; Tony Bennett and Bill Evans’ “Complete” both disks.

Yes, I spent the entire day working on the piano, morning until evening. I didn’t have any plan other than I wanted to get going on as much as possible, so I jumped from job to job to make everything happen as soon as feasible. (This will be a long entry.)

I put the pedal assembly back onto the piano. I had to refer to my original pictures of the pedals, because I couldn’t quite make heads or tails of top and bottom of some of those pieces. But I got there and everything works. I also filled the big-ass hole on the pedal lyre left from when somebody tried to use a five inch screw to attach the assembly to the bottom of the piano. Didn’t make any sense to me, but I was glad to fix the thing properly.

It suddenly occurred to me that I don’t have the pins to put the pedal lyre back on the piano. I refinished the pins for the pedal arms, thinking to save money, but I’m going to have to buy new rod anyways. Damn, I’m stupid. Anyway, here are some before and after shots of the pins that will be replaced.

I tried to make my new pieces of felt fit on the keyboard action rack, but they don’t. They are too short, too thick, or both. Since this part of the piano is completely out of sight anyways, I decided to just wash the old felt and reattach it. Another expense I could have saved with better research and planning.

I glued about twenty key tops back to the keys. I just did that in units of two or three keys as the repair was called for and allowing plenty of time for the glue to dry between lots.

I spray painted the side boards that sit above the keys. I also sprayed the pedal support rod.

I ground all the grime and rust off of the pedals. They are ready for painting. Here are some before and after photos of that.

I cleaned and steel wooled the sound board for all I was worth. I made a cardboard cutout of the harp so that I can see exactly what portions of the sound board it covers so I don’t waste a bunch of time removing decades of hardened dirt for no reason.

Tomorrow, Friday, will be a lot more of the same.