Post #14 - All Caught Up, No Place To Go

Here we are, back in real time.  Accomplishments:

• Very old piano bought and successfully brought home
• Research on the history, such as it, completed and kind of impressive - if I'm right
• All exterior pieces removed and examined - damaged, yes; really badly, no
• Interior cleaned out and as much dust and grime removed without a full dismantlement
• Key felts and pads removed and replaced - not professionally and probably not well, but hopefully serviceable
• Keys cleaned, not professionally and probably not well, but - man - they do look better
• Backed myself into a corner, spent weeks/months getting this done (much to the chagrin of my wife) and a lot of effort - which would be totally wasted if I just pulled everything out and dropped in a 21st Century electronic keyboard

Yes, it dawned on me what I was doing to myself about half-way through, I hinted at this epiphany throughout the last couple of posts.  I had made the decision at the start that I wasn't going to just gut this thing (along with Victoria - this isn't just about me), but I suppose I had to maneuver myself into a place where it would be stupid to do anything else.

And that's what I did.

So, like I said, about halfway through Post #10 or 11 I started looking at what it would really take to do this.

First off, I believe (foolishly, perhaps, but I do) that I could get this thing in tune with itself and - over time, perhaps I could actually get it somewhere near real tune.

But I also believe that it will never stay that way the way it is now...  Wooden harp, countless negative posts on even thinking about trying to do something like this.  No, tuning might be a temporary solution and provide some gratification - and experience - but just cleaning and tuning this piano will not turn it back into a musical instrument for any length of time.

So after researching and reading, I discovered that what might work, and that's probably a big might, is to re-peg the piano using larger pegs than are currently installed.

These look to be the original pegs and the original peg board  for the piano, so of course they are going to slip over the past 120 years or so.

There are places on the web where you can purchase new pegs, in different sizes (as it turns out, these same places will also sell you professional felts and pads - and just about anything else you need - as I found out once I started trying to discover everything I could about the pegs; too bad I had already gone the amateur route with the felts, but that can be corrected).  One thing that people have talked about is repegging with one-size larger pegs than those installed.

But...  If you have to take the pegs out, why, you have to remove the strings to do that.

And if you take the strings off to get the pegs out, then you have to install the new set of pegs, and then restring the entire piano.

I play a 12-string guitar.  Restringing that is not what I would call a chore (labor of love comes closer, but emphasis on the word labor), but it's also not my favorite thing to do.  That's 12 stings; this piece of work is talking 88x2.  And something tells me that piano strings don't come in nice neat, pre-labeled packages like guitar strings.

So, here I am, all caught up with this blog in real time and - as of this moment - no place to go with it.  I hate the thought of gutting it, but re-stringing, re-pegging, and tuning is just a tad more than I originally bargained for.  Tuning, yes, all the rest - the adventurous part of me says go for it - not too sure right now.

I have a couple of thoughts on how to move this forward and make a final decision on which way to go, so if anyone is indeed reading this, stay tuned.  I've been a really good boy the past week or so on posting every day to get caught up.  Now that I am, frequency will probably drop off as we work through the options.  Once way or another, we're going to make this thing work - the old-fashioned way or the new.

And, if anyone is actually reading this - and KNOWS anything about doing this type of thing - has an opinion or a suggestion, I'd love to hear it.  As I said before, constructive please.  I'm not opposed to hearing that this is a lost cause, but that's still my choice of last resort...

Don't go away, we'll be back after a short break to collect our thoughts and senses.