FINIS!

Finished!

Er, um, Actually it's 1858

Well, after my best estimate of the Erard Piano's age based upon serial numbers (I guessed 1859) it turns out that an artisan's mark on whippen #11 "A. Royer"--I have seen that name before in photos of other Erards from the period--indicates a manufacture date of 1858. These other photos show the installation of the new back rail felt (the green felt ribbon) and the regulation of the key height...

Tuning Up!

Tuning up now. The sound is nice and deep. The Erard holds a tune nicely with the new #2 pins. The restoration is nearly complete...

Here's a picture of my tuning set-up: tuning hammer and a rubber mute. What you can't see is the condenser microphone plugged into an electronic tuner...

ReStringing

Restringing now...starting from the bass and moving up. All the new felt is installed. The brass agraffes are all fully polished to brand new condition and have been lacquered. New tuning pins are nice and tight--this piano will tune up nicely.

Mapes Piano Strings of Tennessee did these bass strings; the new strings are absolutely gorgeous and have wonderful tone. I am rapidly approaching completion...

Reassembly

Reassembling the freshly painted interior parts. Things are moving quickly now...

Finishing Soundboard Finishing

Finally, I am approaching the end of the soundboard refinishing. The wood turned out to have a wonderful flame, and good amber color. The sealer I used was Rockler's shellac kit--mixing your own shellac truly does make a difference, it dries harder than Zinsser premixed shellac. The finish is 4 coats of Oxford premium spray lacquer.

This gorgeous decal is from Decals Unlimited...

Sealer Coat on the Soundboard

Finally! A few mist coats of sealer on the soundboard. I am using shellac from Rockler, with a 1.5 lb. cut. The blotchy parts along the left side will be hidden beneath the plate. I'll break down the spray kit, and brush from here on out...

Soundboard Restoration and Repair

This is hard to see, but I have glued a slender shim into a crack in the soundboard. The block on top of the shim are compressed down with strap until the shim dries in place.

The arrows indicate a completed repair.

Soundboard Preparation

Here is the plate removed from the case and sound board. I asked an experienced restorer over the internet about the procedure to get this out and he said..."you're a brave man for trying to remove the plate." Well, he was right, it sucked. Consider that every one of the 30 individual screws that I removed needs to be renovated and painted individually...

The pictures that follow show the plate removed, and some detail of what lurks underneath the slim aperture between the plate and the soundboard beneath. I do not believe that the plate has been removed for at least 80 years. The recent restorations were all done without removing the plate. Also, note that the instrument is no longer in the house, but in the workshop...