My piano restoration “brother” in the Gershwin Piano Restoration, Patrick DeBeliso, continually reminds me of the old adage:  “The Devil is in the Details”.  It’s a truism for so many things, and piano restoration is no exception.  Time and again, he and I have encountered “restored” pianos that have suffered from that one or two items, small as they may seem, that weren’t fixed, and yet have come to the fore and asserted themselves as a problem down the line.  The pedals, lyre, and trapwork always seem to fall victim to neglect.  Perhaps it’s because we put such emphasis on what our fingers do when we play the piano.  Thus, the action and keyboard are what come to mind, but not the pedals, lyre, and trapwork, notably worked by the feet!  Yet, who hasn’t suffered from a creaking or moaning pedal or lyre during a performance?

The Pedals  and Rods Before

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The truth is that much of the success of a restoration can pivot on the hidden details that nobody ever sees.  And contrary to what may be assumed or desired, the parts we receive from a manufacturer can really only be considered partially complete.  They may be fully assembled and boxed, but it takes hours and hours of additional value-added labor to make a set of repetitions or hammer shanks truly useful.

Another example is the dampers.  The felt for dampers comes  in a tidy little box, neatly placed in rows.  It’s not just a matter of taking them out of the box and gluing them on the damper heads.  The felt needs to be codified, organized by height, by “habit” (leaning one way or another), and finally arranged on a gluing tray.  Glued to the damper heads one at a time, they must be perfectly aligned to prevent the damper heads from twisting, especially in the bass, after the pedal is engaged.  All the damper heads must lift simultaneously, yet be adjusted so that they lift just a little bit from the back first, and land a little bit at the front first, so as to land softly, and not with the “thwop” of dampers coming down fronts and backs together.

The felts must be trimmed so that the depth of cut is consistent from one to the next.  Trimming helps to prevent the overly loud “whooshing” sound that often accompanies the depression of the damper pedal, as all the trichord wedge felts brush the strings on their way out.  I’m a little fanatic about trimming; a fact that I can boast about without embarrassment.  Not only do I trim the height of my damper wedges, but I also bevel their edges with my nifty little Swiss Army knife!  (I’d be at a loss without it!)  No other little pair of scissors will do.  It’s all in the details!