well-temperedforum.groupee.net
Piano picture of the day
01 January 2010, 02:09 PM
OperaTenorPiano picture of the day
quote:
Originally posted by lilylady:
titled "a diamond in the rough? ???
from PW
I would have to title it, "I'm gonna cry."
No rescue from the landfill for this one.
03 January 2010, 08:14 PM
Brian BecroftFireworks for Piano lovers... and a few of those let off for the new year:-)
04 January 2010, 02:41 PM
rontunerWicked cold here today.... Thought a little desert piano playing might warm me up!
04 January 2010, 03:08 PM
Zorbaquote:
Originally posted by lilylady:
titled "a diamond in the rough? ???
from PW
No rescue from the landfill for this one.
I'd love to get my hands on those front legs before it hits the landfill...
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-Zorba
"The Veiled Male"
http://www.doubleveil.net
1918 Hobart M. Cable
"No-one would knowingly provide Franz Liszt with a mediocre piano." -E. M. Good
05 January 2010, 12:26 AM
LLAhhhh...
It is NOT going to hit the landfill. The owner is going to restore it. His present redo just entered his home and this is his next project.
(see PW)
I too look at these old pianos for their 'parts'. I want to recycle them as part of a house redo! Can't seem to find any without needing to cart the whole shabang out of someone's basement or 4th floor appt though!
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The earth laughs in flowers
05 January 2010, 06:12 AM
Brian BecroftMelville Clark Apollo Player Piano
"I know very little about this piano at this time, but if my other piano is a piece of junk then this one should be kindling. I acquired this piano in November 2009 from the barn where my wife boards her horses it has been in the hay loft for 20 years, "
Indeed Lilylady, this is the site where I found the photo.
Interesting series of photos here:
http://www.thewaitegroup.com/piano/diamond.htmlMore of the player mechanism exposed
While you are about it, check out the 1909 Otto Grau Piano and restoration pics:
http://www.thewaitegroup.com/piano/otto-grau.html
05 January 2010, 07:13 AM
Brian Becroftquote:
Originally posted by rontuner:
Wicked cold here today.... Thought a little desert piano playing might warm me up!
Down here it is Summertime, hopefully this warms you up some... Timothy Martin hand painted Steinway:
05 January 2010, 09:23 AM
LLRE: Summertime piano...
While I am into flowers, and paintings of flowers AND some of the painting on this piano is funky fun...
THAT IS ONE HIDEOUS PIANO!
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The earth laughs in flowers
05 January 2010, 06:41 PM
OperaTenorThe player piano guy has a couple of more challenges with the Apollo than he has/had with the Grau. First, and fundamentally, the Apollo is a 3/4 plate instead of a full plate, and is probably less stable to begin with. It looks to me like he didn't restring the Grau; he will absolutely have to with the Apollo - there are too many broken strings, and they're all extremely rusty. Besides, I can't imagine there is any tightness left in the pins.
Aside for that, the piano is incomplete. It looks like parts of the upper action stack are missing, and it's enough of an oddball that probably isn't a manual extant to fix it.
Just sayin'...
06 January 2010, 02:18 AM
Steve MillerI have been told that if I were to ask a Connecticut Yankee for directions to a place difficult to reach, he would tell me that he probably wouldn't start from wherever we are.
That said, I wouldn't pick that Melville Clark player for a project piano. Too much carp to ever be a decent piano. Too much missing to ever be a decent player.
And weird.
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Life is short. Play with your dog.
06 January 2010, 02:21 AM
Steve Millerquote:
Originally posted by OperaTenor:
it's enough of an oddball that probably isn't a manual extant to fix it.
Who needs a manual when you have
advertising?
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Life is short. Play with your dog.
06 January 2010, 04:41 AM
Brian Becroftquote:
but if my other piano is a piece of junk then this one should be kindling.
So I guess he is being realistic about the whole affair:-)
06 January 2010, 09:01 AM
rontunerBaby, it's cold outside...
06 January 2010, 02:15 PM
Brian Becroftquote:
Originally posted by rontuner:
Baby, it's cold outside...
You may well be warm compared to the blokes in that photo!!! - my interest being piqued by the reference to New Zealand in the address line - Whoa! - we are talking Antarctica here!
Photo quote:
Ice Piano: Alun Breese (orange goggles) enjoys a surreal tune from the piano ‘acquired’ from the Americans by the New Zealanders at Scott Base. Photo courtesy of Alun Breese.
Backstory:
http://www.airforce.mil.nz/ope...-from-antarctica.htm"Among the slides are some of a piano in the snow at Scott Base that was mysteriously ‘acquired’ from the Americans at McMurdo on Christmas Day, and which was used to good effect in the Base’s social calendar."
07 January 2010, 12:13 AM
OperaTenorquote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:
quote:
Originally posted by OperaTenor:
it's enough of an oddball that probably isn't a manual extant to fix it.
Who needs a manual when you have
advertising?
[kenny mode]Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck[/kenny mode]
From the
Player-Care site, to my knowledge the biggest mechanical music nerd site around:
quote:
Melville Clark
The distinguishing feature of the Melville Clark player action was the "spring wind" mechanism which ran the music roll and became an integral part of the transmission. The winding of the main-spring was done by linkage to the pumping pedal movement. When fully wound, a slipping clutch would prevent overwinding. This was a nice feature for two reasons: it eliminated the terrific drain on the vacuum system otherwise required to run an air motor, and no pumping was required on rewind, due to the energy stored in the spring.
Earlier player stacks pushed directly on the keys with poppet wires and guide rail immediately behind the cover in back of the keyboard. The folding fall board normally found on pianos, was eliminated to make room for this player action. The stack was four rows of pneumatics facing forward. The valve chest was above and to the rear: Two rows of horizontal valves which screwed directly into the moveable leaf of a pouch-pneumatic through the inside valve seat. In order to have access to the pouch chamber, all of the valves had to be un-screwed first. Also there was a three-tier stack with same valve arrangement, but with smaller pneumatics which engaged with whippen of piano action. A later type of pneumatic stack followed; still with the spring wind, but with the more conventional three tier stack with circle pouches in individual chests above the pneumatics which engaged with the whippen through poppet wires at rear.
Unfortunately, there is no technical data on the spring-driven air motor mentioned above. And although Art Reblitz's book mentions Melville Clark numerous times, even his book doesn't contain any definitive information about this particular action.
There is NO Service Manual or Technical Reprint available!
It would seem this is one of the earlier models.