Stieff Evaluation and Disassembly

This week, I took a closer look at the piano, while disassembling it. Generally, I found that nothing was worse than I knew it could be, but a few things were not as good as I had hoped:

• In preparation for measuring downbearing, I attempted to bring the piano up to pitch. I found at least a dozen unisons which would not hold pitch.
• Almost uniformly, I measured zero downbearing from bottom to top.
• The source of the veneer damage is certain to be water damage. I think that at one time the piano was stored on its side in damp or wet(!) conditions. There are mold markings on the left side of the sound board and on the bass bridge.
• The hammers do not look as good as I thought they might be prior to removing the action. I guess that's to be expected, as you can see them better once the action is removed! In any event, they appear to have been reshaped at some point. The topmost hammer is odd. Hammers in the top octave have worn through to the wood core. It is not clear whether the hammers are original or not.

BUT ... I wanted to rebuild a piano, and this is a great one to rebuild.

There are also some really good things about the piano that I appreciate now that I have begun to dismantle.

• The keybed is flat and looks great!
• I found a missing ivory keytop inside the case. That should make a complete set. I'm pleased to have an ivory keyboard
• I should have known (could have looked at my Stieff in the living room), but I am pleased to see agraffes from the bass through the first two thirds of the treble. Theory states that's good for tuning stability, and that makes sense.
• The action is really in great condition. It has kept good regulation and aside from hammers shows no serious wear or damage.

More pictures on Flickr.com