Here's a question for techs who have had their heads inside some Canadian pianos. I am restoring a 1916 Nordheimer 5'8" grand piano that has connections to the history of our university -- it belonged to the family of one of our illustrious past presidents. I noticed with interest when I first studied it that it has no soundboard decal. Some years ago I restored another Nordheimer for our university that was from 1921, and I invested a fair amount of work in preparing the image from which the decal for that one was printed.
Now that I'm tearing this one down, I'm noting that the tuning pins are 3/0, which suggests to me that the piano has be restrung at least once since it was new. That means that it is entirely possible that the soundboard has also been refinished. I don't see evidence of an original decal having been removed, but I guess that doesn't prove for certain that one hasn't been.
So my question for any who might know is this: Is it likely that this 1916 Nordheimer started out its life with a soundboard decal? I would like to make my restoration reasonably authentic, and it will be simple to install a decal if that is what is called for.
Thanks for any insight you might give me.
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Floyd Gadd RPT
Regina SK
(306) 502-9103
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