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BÖSENDORFER
A bout the piano:
Bösendorfer grand piano, 170 cm long, with Viennese action, 88 keys and 2 pedals, built in 1904 in Vienna. When I bought it in the summer of 1999, it was playable, with a very nice and pure sound, but the case was scratched and the finish was showing it's age. This was my first restoration project.
It is a very beautiful instrument, with walnut veneer, ivory keys and some parts painted in black, so I decided to restore it. Of course, I didn't do the job alone, but I helped too :-) The restoration work started in December 1999 and lasted till January 2000.
R efinishing the case:
That's how it looked before restoration. The walnut veneer was scratched in some places and the color had darkened very much.
Here is a picture of the piano during restoration. The old lacquer has been removed sanded off. At this time, with the action taken out, I cleaned the soundboard. Try to imagine that 90 year old dust...
Because the veneer was damaged, we had to re-veneer some parts, using a walnut veneer similar to the original.
And now some pictures of the finished piano. The color is now lighter, because the old lacquer had turned darker in time.
R egulating the action:
This piano has a Viennese action, which is a lot simpler than the modern double escapement action. It has hammers facing backwards, which are covered on top with leather.
In this type of action, the touch is quite different because the keys need to be pressed only half as deep as in the modern type of action. Also, the escapement happens only after the hammer touches the string, which makes the touch very responsive and controllable, but the repetition is not so fast, because the key needs to return to rest position before it re-engages the hammer.
Here is the frame of the action, with the keys removed. The felts (green and red) have been replaced with new ones. On the back you can see in a row the hooks of the escapement of the Viennese action.
Below are the keys with the hammers. Notice that in the Viennese action, the hammers are individually fixed to the respective keys, rather than on a rail. The rods with the red leather on top are lifting the dampers which are encased in a special frame. You can see this frame in the third picture (up) showing the piano stripped during restoration.
The old leather strips which covered the hammer felt have been removed, because they had been replaced in the past with the wrong kind of leather (too thick and hard, causing a harsh sound). After removing the felt, the hammers have been also reshaped. Next, new deerskin strips have been glued to the hammers, and all the necessary adjustments made.
The hammers were re-covered with new leather (deerskin, as used originally). This was the last part of the restoration.
© Calin
Last update: 14.10.2006
