Using some good ol’ intense sunlight and Concrobium for some mold remediation on this Bösendorfer action today. Let it dry for a day or two and then wipe it all down with towels moistened with the same. Dry again then done! Maybe polish some capstans/key pins and check pinning while I’m at it.

Key rebushing with my mentor on a Steinway D using the Reyburn setup of pre-glued cloth, Bushmaster, Weller hot caul tool to activate glue and Spurlock caul system. Brilliantly consistent and fast—maybe a little over 4 hours for 2 of us to get our rhythm and knock it out—including teaching!

A 23 year old Kawai RX-1 with a half dozen plastic sharps that have popped off. Evidence of others that have since been reglued. No “core” for these to hang onto—just the surface area along the perimeter. This surprised me to say the least…

Apple Watch displaying earthquake alert

I had signed up for earthquake warning alerts and am here to say they worked—this popped up about 5 seconds before the room started to shake on the UCSD campus yesterday.
Important note: taking cover under a thousand pounds of Steinway D is *not* a good idea…

A bit of respite from the practice rooms—tuning the Yamaha CFX concert grand in the Performing Arts Center.

Two 50+ year old Baldwin Hamilton “cave” pianos—the heavy one-piece top and front lifts and is propped up by a stick and hovers over you while working, hence the “cave” moniker. While they still have a booming bass, these old fellows are “rode hard and put away wet” and past their real serviceable life.

Service record stickers in the old Baldwin Hamiltons dating back to the mid-70s…and who knows how long before that they were built!

Pre-tuning measurements (yellow line) on a practice room piano tuned only 4 months earlier—the grey line shows the optimum tuning curve. You can tell where the plate struts are from the big changes in pitch. Poorly controlled HVAC wreaks havoc on pianos

Scenes from prepping the pianos for the semester at my local community college gig. It’s a true microcosm/spectrum of pianos from humble, beat up practice room uprights to classroom grand pianos to a concert instrument in the performing arts center. I am grateful for the experience and the contract.

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Hammer rail on Steinway D with no surface treatment to help keep the flanges from shifting.

All the hammers removed from the rail and kept in order using blue painter’s tape marking which section they’re from.

Close up of the hammer rail with new sandpaper strip glued on and flange screw holes made.

Last week’s fun while working with my mentor: S&S D with no surface treatment on the hammer rail. Removed the hammers, glued down some sandpaper, hammers back on…travel, burn, space… This one is designated for prepared piano works so wasn’t used often…but when (and how?!) was it last regulated?

Getting the pianos tuned for the spring semester at Southwestern College…oh so many “cave” pianos…these old Baldwin Hamilton uprights still have service record stickers in them from the 70s! Ooof…