Here is what my piano looks like right now. This was at the beginning of the evening. By the end of the evening I had removed over 50 years worth of dust (and various other items) from the inside.You can see the straw that I taped to my hand-held vacuum to get into the tight spots.
The ziplock bags on top hold the pads and paper spacers for the center key pads. The piano guy gave me 4 (four!) different thicknesses of paper spaces so I can get the keys to be all the exact same height. As was explained to me, this is necessary because the felt pads are made out of an "organic" material. To be plain, it is impossible to get them all exactly the same thickness, so the paper spacers are to even things out. Before I put in the felt pads though, he suggested that I iron them!
So yesterday evening was interesting. First I mowed the back section of lawn (and it's a good thing too because it started raining after it got dark). Then I ironed 100 tiny round felt pads (they are about the size of hole punch protectors). After that I worked on removing over 50 years worth of dust and other accumulated stuff from the inside of the piano. At some point in the past the piano must have been kept near someone's Christmas tree...because there were a bunch of pine needles in there. And kids must have used it because I found little stickers in with the dust.
The next time I have time, I will begin putting those little pads into place, putting the keys on them, and then begin the exacting task of adding paper spaces to make them line-up just right.
3 comments:
I never asked why it is necessary to IRON the felt pads. Were they--felt!--wrinkled? And what harm would wrinkles do?
Wow, that sounds like quite an ordeal.
We've been told our piano--which apparently was made out of mismatched pieces--is going to permanently lose its sound in a few years whatever we do. So I don't suppose we'll ever do such an undertaking.
I hope it sounds great when you finish!
Katie - The purpose for ironing is to help flatten them before you put them in the piano.
Any little bits of material that are sticking-up will be eventually beaten down by the piano key action. However, that will make the pad slightly thinner and throw off the careful alignment I plan to do. Since I have no desire to take the keyboard apart regularly, I want the felts to be as flat as they will ever be from the beginning.
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