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Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

  • 1.  Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-14-2017 11:13
    I'm working a 1928 Steinway L in the Colonial Style that needs a small
    amount of attention to the action. It's in a museum so they are very
    strict about what can be done to the piano. My first challenge is just
    getting the action out. Beyond the usual cheek block screws it isn't
    obvious. There is no closing fallboard and it seems the stationary
    fallboard and cheek blocks are attached to the keyframe. Maybe
    everything slides out as one unit and you lift the cabinet parts off.
    Since it is a museum they don't want me doing anything unless I'm
    certain about it.

    Thanks very much.
    Robert


  • 2.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-14-2017 11:34
    Is it that you can't get the fall board and cheek blocks out, or that they come off, but the action won't move?   If it's the latter, look to see if the lure screws are not screwed into the action frame. 

    Wim Blees.

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    Willem "Wim" Blees, RPT
    Mililani, HI 96789
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  • 3.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-14-2017 11:41
    The cheekblocks and fallboard don't come out independently. I get the feeling that they come out with the keyframe.

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    Robert Callaghan
    Reno NV
    775-287-2140
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  • 4.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-14-2017 15:14
    ​The style of the cabinet tells me that was a Steinway duo-art player piano.  It has been several years since I had to remove one but you may have to remove the pedal lyre and there is a (block?) hidden up in the back of the action that has to be removed. It may be just a screw, I don't remember exactly what it was.  Norman Cantrell, PTG past president can tell you exactly what it is as he has worked on many of these.  If you are not a PTG member his email is normancantrell@sbcglobal.net  or cantrellspianoclinic.com

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    Clarence Zeches
    Piano Service Enterprise School of Technology
    Toccoa GA
    706-886-4035
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  • 5.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Posted 07-14-2017 16:43
    Doesn't look like a player to me. There is no large expanse behind the key tops to the string frame where the spool box would have been.

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    Regards,

    Jon Page
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  • 6.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Posted 07-15-2017 10:19
    Raise the key slip, there might be a slide-out handle to pull the action out.

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    Regards,

    Jon Page
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  • 7.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-15-2017 14:41
    I love those slide-out handles.

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    Susan Kline
    Philomath, Oregon
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  • 8.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-14-2017 11:51
    Robert:

    I have seen a piano that looks just like/very much this one, although it has been several weeks.  The piano was disassembled to be rebuilt by fellow Guild member Lee Morton,  Lee passed away a few weeks ago, and the piano has gone to another rebuilder's shop.  I will be seeing Lee's daughter today, and she can tell me where the piano went.  I will post that information here when I get it.

    I was told this piano was called the "Kitchen" piano, as it was supposedly a "copy" of Henry Steinway's first piano in New York, which was built in his kitchen.   Lee told me that his copy was believed to be the only one built by Steinway.  This piano and the museum's seem to be identical, to my visual memory.  The set up around the stationary fallboard and environs look identical.

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    William Truitt
    Bridgewater NH
    603-744-2277
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  • 9.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Posted 07-14-2017 13:03
    I would check under the stretcher. There might be angled slots where the stretcher is attached to the sides and it has to come out if there isn't space between the stretcher and the name board to allow the name board to come out.

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    Dan Silverwood
    www.silverwoodpianos.com
    http://silverwoodpianos.blogspot.com/
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  • 10.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Posted 07-14-2017 14:18
    Maybe it's like a square grand with the screws about a foot back from the front and the whole unit pulls forwards.

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    Regards,

    Jon Page
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  • 11.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-14-2017 20:06
    I had an Emerson (I believe) that looked identical at the key area. Take off the key slip, look underneath for screws into the cheek blocks. The whole assembly pulls out. That vertical board behind the keys was screwed to the top of the cheek blocks. Of course with its age and possible warping, it may take jiggling.

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    Larry Messerly, RPT
    Bringing Harmony to Homes
    www.lacrossepianotuning.com
    ljmesserly@gmail.com
    928-899-7292
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  • 12.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-15-2017 10:35
    Thanks for the responses. I only see this piano once a year when they
    have a concert series. Some of the suggestions might be the right
    thing. It isn't a player, though.

    Robert




  • 13.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-14-2017 23:56
    The general look is quite reminiscent of my mom's 1940's Haddorff console, which had a fancy case. That piano had a curved piece which reminds me of the stretcher on this one. The way in was to find some very small fasteners just under each end of that curved piece.

    So, the first thing I would do would be to take a mirror and a flashlight, and look on the underside of that stretcher to see if that whole piece can be taken off, which might give you access to fasteners holding in the action/keyframe/case parts, which I assume might pull forward in one piece like a drawer.

    A Chinese puzzle box -- do let us know the answer once you find it!

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    Susan Kline
    Philomath, Oregon
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  • 14.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-15-2017 00:03
      |   view attached
    I found a photo of a similar Haddorff. It's not quite like ours was, but the curved piece is more or less the same. Without realizing that that piece was removable by taking out small fasteners going into it from underneath it, no one would be able to get into that piano.

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    Susan Kline
    Philomath, Oregon
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  • 15.  RE: Steinway L 1928 Colonial Style

    Posted 03-24-2023 19:26

    This post is from a long time ago but I recently bought a 1916 Steinway Model O with an identical case.  The key to removing the action is that it slides out with the cheek blocks and keyframe.  After you remove the two screws into the two cheek blocks you can life the cheek blocks just a little bit, enough to clear the dowels that hold it in place.  Then if you take two wire ties, close the ends to make loops, you can use the loops to catch the index pins on either side of the keyframe and pull the action out.  If someone sees this with the same question, this is the answer.  I spent hours trying to figure it out.



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    Thomas Brantigan
    Folsom CA
    (410) 371-1617
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