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An article about a piano I recently worked on for one of our customers
Tapes
Tapes
This movement is from an upright piano that was constructed about 100 years ago! These little red tags, sometimes called tapes, are designed to hold the movement together when you need to take it out. Incredibly these are the original ones that were used during the movement's construction.
Tuning Pins
Tuning Pins
These pegs are called rest pins and are what the strings wrap around and hold the tension of the notes. They go into a piece of wood we call the block and grip using nothing but friction. Of course they have be very tightly in their holes or strings cannot stay tight. The total combined tension created by all the strings is typically 16 tons.
Action Fastening
Action Fastening
This rod and fastening nut system is crucial to the precise alignment of the dampers. The dampers are felt pads that silence the note that you just played when you release the key. Sometimes this round nut is missing which causes all the notes to keep ringing out even after releasing the note. It is important not to lose this because they are not easy to replace these days!
Soft Pedal
Soft Pedal
Here you can see a piece of felt running along the length of the piano just in front of the strings. When the left pedal is pressed down this felt moves up in front of the hammers. This causes the sound to be very soft when the notes are played. Typically you will find this design in older pianos. In more modern pianos they don't use this technique. I will explain more in a later article so you can see the difference.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed this article! If there is anything you would like me to write an article about to do with pianos then feel free to contact AvR Piano Tuning using the form in Contact Us.
Article written by Andrew van Rooyen
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