Treasure hunting in Sussex

With tools and wife safely packed in my trusty Toyota Aygo, a weekend away was on offer and heading directly into the late February sunshine it was Sussex by the Sea here we come.  My long suffering wife knows there is no such thing as a free lunch in the repertoire of bull that is forthcoming from yours truly but accepted the promise of wine, dine and shopping….oh, and a Steinway or two to look at. One of the exciting things about this job is some of the very lovely people one meets and interesting homes you get to visit, none then was less intriguing than the weekend ahead.  A veritable treasure trove of instruments awaited but before that, treasure of a different kind.

I have long been fascinated by the West Pier on the seafront at Brighton and the sad remains now lie out of reach and out of hope.  Opened in 1866 this once magnificent structure must have been the highlight of a walk out in this famous south coast resort for many a Victorian family.  Virtually destroyed now by time, neglect and supposedly ‘professional arsonists’, my fascination is obviously shared by many in the regular sales of Pier fragments that can be purchased for posterity.  What might be cast junk to one  could be Pier ‘treasure’ to another and I can but imagine the delight in sifting through the wreckage like a smuggler in a westerly cove.

My own treasure hunting though got seriously underway on Sunday and treasures they were indeed as I was taken from piano to piano and all of great musical interest.  Tales abounded of tuition links back to the days of Clara Schumann at one extraordinary house and then driving into deepest Sussex more delights awaited.

This elderly Steinway concert grand has quite incredibly been in the same family ownership since new in 1887 and now stands rooted to the spot with its 125 year history spread out in memories every bit as interesting as the scores that cover its music desk and top.  Having survived torturous moves, recession, depression, two world wars and just about everything else that could be thrown at it this piano will most probably live on to see me out.  Pianos like this don’t die, they simply sit back and watch the rest of the world go by.

Widgets

Widgets I hear you say?  No, not quite, but old Steinway agraffes.  This is the collection of removed agraffes from Steinway plates in just 2 years at our new restoration facility.  I can’t say how many pianos worth this is as I have lost count, but it is many!  The new agraffes are fitted to improve the sound quality, the old agraffes having worn over the years as the pull of the string and movement from constant tuning distorts the little hole that the string passes through.

I am saving them up for the scrap man to recycle!

Piano care tips by video

From time to time I hope to add further video help posts in the care of your piano. Here is one to start the ball rolling.

Looking under to under-floor

My photo today shows an ingenious bit of handiwork from members of a church in London determined to try and keep at bay the under-floor heating from their treasured Steinway model D concert grand.  The grand piano shaped device is beautifully made and neatly fits under the piano to deflect the rising heat.  It has little glides underneath so it pulls out easily, being large and quite heavy this will save the backs of the musical parishioners.

Under-floor heating is the bane of the poor piano these days, it seemingly being popular with builders and architects alike.  Left unchecked and when working well this form of heating can do more damage to a piano than any aspiring 18 year old tear away student doing his best to be the most promising concert pianist in the world.

Hearty congratulations then to my clients with the D grand for going to so much trouble to safeguard their lovely Steinway.

Looking under

I’m sure we all spend lots of time looking into the interior or tops of grand pianos but how much time do you spend looking underneath?  My two photos show the vast difference between the construction of the underneath of a Steinway and Bechstein grand piano.

This is the underside of a Steinway model O grand from 1908.  Being an oak casework Steinway had resisted the need to black in the beams so common place with ebony and rosewood pianos of the day.  Note also there is no ‘bell’ on the O grand, this is only available on the A,B,C and D grands.

The photo above shows the underside of a Bechstein model A grand, they could not be more different could they!?  The Steinway has a much thicker outer rim than the Bechstein and of course is formed in one piece.  The Bechstein will be quite different in this respect.

So when you get a chance take a look under your piano!

Looking tidy

Are you one of those people who likes to see everything in its place, everything in line neat and tidy?  I am.  Not that you would believe it somedays when you see the chaos in the workshop with parts of pianos everywhere.  The main air conditioned showroom however is the one place of extreme tidiness at Shackell Pianos and I seem to spend more than enough time seeing everything is dusted, finger print free and tidy!  This time of year does take its toll on the tuning so on top of all that I have to see that they are all kept well in tune as well.

A man’s work is never done!

Retired and grateful

This snap of dreadfully cold weather has reminded me how grateful I am that I don’t have to spend so many nights out on concert piano hire these days.  Many has been the year of loading up a piano at goodness knows what time of night with freezing hands and still face a long drive home.  Yes, I am grateful to have come through the other side and now gladly leave this work to my more than capable porters.

I could write for England on my stories of dealing with pianos and pianists, a lot of it probably not really suitable for publication but from time to time I must write a few down if only for me to look back on and remind myself what fun it all was.  One such drama went through my mind earlier today as I caught a snippet of the Rachmaninoff 3rd concerto on the radio.

For us piano tuners dealing with the sharp end at concert level, tuning for this particular piece is indeed something of a challenge as personally I do like to hear the piano remain in tune for as long as possible during the performance, preferably until the end!  This is made easier by being allowed a reasonable amount of time after the rehearsal to firmly belt the piano into tune, it can then be piano versus pianist on a level playing field in my books.  And so it was that a particular concert hire came up for me at one of this countries leading festivals and the Rach 3 was to be performed by a formidable Russian exponent known the world over for his power and prodigious technique.

The Steinway D grand was delivered and the tuning checked before rehearsal and sure enough during the rehearsal I could hear my careful work being unsettled.  Not to worry I thought, I will get my hour at 6pm until 7pm and all will be corrected.  6pm came and the rehearsal finished, it was at least 6.15 before the last of the orchestral members slowly wandered off and peace dawned – just me and the piano then.  I made a start in earnest having been waiting since just gone 6pm to have my time.  No sooner than I had started the larger than life pianist in his rain coat came walking up the centre aisle.  ’I need to practice’ he informed me as he joined me on the stage.  ”Ah”..I replied “If you could give me half an hour or so I will be through this and the piano will be yours”  ’No’ he said as he virtually pushed me off the piano stool ‘I practice now!’  I politely reminded him that the piano really did need tuning and that I only had this time to do it, I would not be able to hear when the doors opened at 7pm and the sold out audience entered to take their seats.  He was having none of it and there then started what I can only describe as a bit of a scene between us as we both argued our need for the piano.  After some 10 minutes or so of what turned into a heated debate the concert promoters politely escorted our furious soloist from the hall, literally by dragging him away!

Completely flustered by now I stated again knowing I had no hope of really doing a good job, more a sense of damage limitation came to mind.  I had not been going that long when the lighting engineers came in and said they needed to make changes to the lights and made a right ding dong of a noise doing it.  By 6.45pm they had cleared off and with sweating hands and a stomach churning feeling I raced against the impossible to try and tune the piano.

At about 6.50pm I sensed someone behind me scuffling about and as I tuned round my heart just dropped as the harpist asked how long I would be! 8pm calmly came into my mind and I replied “You can tune now love and bloody good luck!”

Do I then miss the concert life and rubbing shoulders with the stars?

No!

Originality vs Rebuilt?

I had a rare chance to visit a local piano shop at the weekend, a competitor if you like, but certainly a friendly one at that.  As I walked around the assembled stock of pianos I was drawn to a pre first WW1 Bechstein grand.  This piano stood out from the crowd with its dazzling looks and almost bling like appearance.  But this piano was over 100 years old and yet looking like it was made yesterday.  Dripping with polyester on the casework, a high build of glossy lacquer on the plate and bleached white as snow soundboard, it had all the hallmarks of quality restoration work carried out in a foreign land.

Did this piano though deserve such treatment?  Are we looking after the best interests of these wonderful old pianos that ooze character and charm after a century of service and sometimes survival of untouched originality?  Personally where possible I am all for preservation and conservation of originality at the expense of perfection in detail for the sake of the eye.  I often feel that overhaul work to elderly pianos is a balance of scales and what you gain on one hand you may lose on the other.

There is no doubt that stringing of 80 to 100 years of age is indeed a challenge for tuning, indeed the full cooperation of strings for tuning is probably getting past the sell by date at 40 years.  But I also feel that when beautifully preserved and if still fitted with original hammer heads there is something about the sound of an older instrument that is pure magic and more than likely lost when changing such parts.  Present day hammers with their firmly pressed fibres present as much of a challenge for voicing as do original strings for tuning.  There is that balance of scales again.

My photo above shows a glorious original condition interior of a 1922 Bechstein model A that is currently in stock.  As difficult as some of the conservation has been this piano will not get the restoration treatment as I feel there is still a truly lovely piano in its originality.  All we can do here is preserve it as best as it will allow, pass it on to the next owner and hope they will take up the duty of care that the previous owners have done for many a year.  If the next one to come in is totally knackered and has no hope for conservation then restoration will have to commence but I will always rest happy in the knowledge that I have tried to save at least some of the glories of the golden era of piano making.

 

The Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Steinway D grand overhaul

Among the many Steinway pianos going through our workshops at present is a 1971 model D that belongs to the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough District Council.  This instrument has been the subject of a very thorough restoration including full casework refinishing with new legs and castors in our German contractors facility in Bavaria.  Here we see Paul Mildren fitting the last few strings to the piano.

The restored piano is eagerly awaited by the staff at the new building in Rotherham where it will be housed and used for a range of concert activities.  Shackell Pianos were proud to be awarded the contract for the overhaul that has been ongoing since November 2010 and will see completion in March 2012.

34 years on

Yes, 34 years on from my previous ramblings at apprentice days and here is the team at work at Shackell Pianos Ltd in 2012.  It is not often that the whole team are there on one day so I thought a photo record should be taken.  In fact the whole team are not there in this shot, even more contractors help at Shackell Pianos showing what a wide team effort our work is.  There are so many parts to a piano, so many specialised crafts, it would be impossible to recount just how many people across the whole industry have a hand somewhere in either making the parts or supplying materials that make the sum total.

In front of a Steinway D plate then we have, myself, Nigel, Adam, Clive, Paul and Mike, each and everyone of them vital to the ongoing business and the quality work that we aim to provide.