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Marshall & Wendell - Rebuild after bad refurbishing.

By Jason Davies posted 09-20-2013 19:57

  
Hello! - for whatever reason, I've decided to give an old piano some new life.  This piano has endured an interesting "refurbishing" and many years of abuse, I'd like to make it right, but I am having a hard time finding any information on it.  Hopefully, the hundreds of you great folks can help point me somewhere.  Let's start with some photos: Flickr album of pictures .  For whatever reason, I have this piano dated 1941.  To be honest, I can't find a serial #, lots of stamped build numbers, but the serial appears missing.   The other weirdness is that this piano measures exactly 5'0" from nose to slip cover.  Not 5'2 or 4'9 as my scale book would suggest. 

The majority of questions are related to the pinblock.  I was able to lift the plate and simply pickup the block with two fingers and lift it out. The block shelf barely touches it.  So, on this piano , one would look at the plate and think that is free floating?  Maybe not, opinions would be great (or thoughts.)

The piano has a 30 string bass section and new bass strings are being made for it in England, by John Delacour. (again, why not try something super-unconventional...)   From your rebuild experiences..If you had a decent budget - what would you see  want to see in a little piano like this? This piano will live out its years at a private community college.  

Jason
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10-05-2013 10:24

I recently looked at a M&W grand about the same size. Serial #110086 put manufacture at 1927. The SN on it was stamped on the plate at the treble end. I was only there to install a humidity control system which had somehow vanished in their move, so I haven't opened it up and serviced it yet. Will do so in a few weeks. The back or bottom of the key slip is always a good spot to check for SN. You might try, if you haven't already stripped it, gently sanding back the plate to see if the old SN is under a coat of paint. I'll look at the shelf and see if it's similar to yours. I might be tempted to create more shelf and decrease the spacing between the stretcher and the block by cutting the block wider. But it's certainly not uncommon for the block to only be held in place by the plate screws.