Adventures Doing Cr@p I Know Nothing About: Post #18 - When In Doubt, Not Left Or Right

Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. All throughout this experience, I've been doing it - and I hope that if anyone is really reading this, you're laughing along with me, preferably not at me.

It seems I can get so fixated on an idea that I lose sight of the alternatives. While asking for opinions from anyone I can thing of - knowledgeable or not - and hoping they won't talk me out of it while secretly praying that they do, I didn't let myself realize that this is not just right (re-peg and re-string and totally re-store) or left (gut and drop, then restore the exterior only).

There is a forward way that may lead to one direction or the other, but let's me develop some skills and test to see which is the better way...

I concede that everything I've read and been told says that an antique English wooden harp cannot and will not hold proper pitch. And that this piano is way out of tune, which bears that point out and is not a good thing.

But I don't know that. It hasn't been tested.

And I do know that, mechanically and physically, this piano is in better shape than any piece of furniture 100+ and possibly 150+ years old has a right to be. Neglected for maybe 10-50 years, who knows?, but it is in no way, shape, or form a wreck.

And I also know that someone, not me, has done work on this piano in the not-so-distant past. At least two hammer dowels have been replaced and at least one string. And, as my disappointing treasure hunt proved, it has been cleaned and reconditioned internally.

So... Here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to get a piano tuner kit. Not terribly expensive and, if it comes down to re-pegging and re-stringing, then I need on anyway. If it turns out that gutting is the only option, well, maybe I can start a sideline as a tuner or - worst case - resell it on eBay or someplace and chalk the loss up to experience.
I do not expect to be able to get it into proper pitch immediately, if ever, especially if I don't re-peg. So, I'm going to shoot for bringing it up a half-step or step from where it is and getting in tune with itself. That, in itself, should be an interesting task.
Then... We'll see. Does it stay? Is it even possible? Does the harp explode like dry kindling? Who knows.
But... If it stays, then I just avoided several hundred dollars in hardware and string costs. I don;t really expect this, but it's worth a shot.
And if it doesn't, well, I'll be able to prove to myself whether I'm capable of doing a tuning or not. If so, then maybe a re-peg and re-string is possible. If not, as much as I hate to say it, then it's gutting time.
In the meantime, while I'm waiting for the tuning kit, I'll work on the piano case and the keys. While I got the legs back in shape and the keys look way better than they did, there's still a bunch of work to do on the case and finishing touches on the keys. Unless I get really bored, the panels will wait for their refinishing until I'm ready to put the whole thing back together - one way or another.
Since a blog post without pictures is boring, here are some pics on the work on the case that I started today. So far, it's my trusty pal Liquid Gold just to clean everything up. We'll get to the real refinishing products in the next couple of days. But if you look at the before and after pictures (left and right or top and bottom, respectively), hopefully you'll see an improvement.