Yippee - Hooray

I take it there will be no work getting done today then - well except the piano practice!

Enjoy Skylark, I know that I never get tired of playing on mine and stillhave withdrawal symptoms when I can't get on it!

Who would have thought that you would end up with a piano and learning to play it. When I first spoke to you and you had no inclination at all to have the piano as an instrument - so funny how things change?

ET

Congratulations on the safe installation of the new arrival!

Have fun.

I remember these threads when you talked about getting a portable piano to help you with your theory, harmony and chords. So happy to see it has brought a love for the instrument! Congratulations on getting your new piano!!! Enjoy every minute playing on it!!!

Oh, it's really beautiful! It looks almost modern, because that type of design is back in now. If it sounds as good as it looks, you have a real bargain!

We shan't expect another post for hours, as I bet you'll be playing it all the time at first.

Edit: Do you have a stool for it?

Good for you Skyers! Enjoy!

Thanks everybody

Apart from a little play first thing, I've had work to do unfortunately! I probably won't play it seriously though until it's had the restoration work done - I'll talk to my teacher next week about that.

BerkshireMum - yes there is a stool with it, and it's probably the original stool but unfortunately it's too high and not adjustable. I'm quite tall but my feet don't touch the pedals with it!

I'm going to give it a good clean this weekend. The postman has just delivered the book I'd ordered - Larry Fine's The Piano Book so I can read up on how to care for it, and also get to further understand the workings.

Does life get any better than this...

I'm very pleased for you, the piano looks good. If the stool is the original, but simply too high for you, it would be worth having it lowered - by a joiner perhaps? Photo of stool needed.

Love the new Piano! So pleased that you have sorted something out.

Thanks oldnotes and notmusimum, glad you like it



I'm going to give my friends the stool back and I'm happy to keep using the stool I've been using with my digital piano, at least for the time being and I might look at "proper" piano stools in due course

Talking about piano stools - the best buy I made was a really good duet stool off ebay! It does not take up any more room, as it sits under the keyboard as a standard stool does, and provides enormous storage. And it's useful for playing duets!

That's a very good idea!!!

I haven't been on the forum for ages, so have just read the whole of this thread in one go. How exciting! I'm really very envious, Skyers. I hope you have a lovely time playing that beautiful piano. I want one!

Unfortunately I've just spent several hundred pounds on a clarinet...

It's beautiful Skylark.

Great news, Skylark.

Enjoy the 'new' piano!

Thanks Chris, Flossie and John I've been cleaning it today. The keys were very grimy and they feel lovely and clean now. I've wiped the woodwork with a damp microfibre cloth and loads of dirt came off. I'd like it to have a sheen rather than a shine, so next week all being well, I'm going to meet up with someone I know who works with wood and hopefully he can tell me what to use. I can't wait for my lesson next week to hopefully arrange for my teacher to come and do the restoration work he said he'll do



Wow! I'll email you!

I've texted you with my new email address.

I've discovered an unexpected fascination with the inside of pianos as well My teacher's been tonight and taken it all to bits. He's gone off armed with measurements and a few parts, and he's left the action out so that I can get at all the innards to give everything a good clean (but gently!). I've been reading Larry Fine's piano book as well which is really informative about the workings of a piano. I love it!

Oh gosh, that is beautiful. I hope I get to play it one day.

Skylark, that is absolutely beautiful.

Wow...your piano is lush! Wishing you both many happy years together

Glad the piano quest has had a pleasing conclusion and I hope you get many hours of pleasure. As a general suggestion for anyone thinking of purchasing a piano I would recommend reading Larry Fine's piano book. Lots of useful information on what to look for when buying a secondhand instrument and detailed assessments of all makers. It was very helpful to me last year when I purchased a new piano.

Glad you all like it


I'm beginning to think my piano is haunted... since it was taken to bits a few days ago, several times I've been startled by a *very* loud noise, as if a string had broken, but it hasn't and there's nothing obviously amiss when I go to inspect it. It didn't make these noises before the piano was taken to bits... have I got a piano ghost that is protesting about having its innards spilt out...

[mostly joking...]



Edit. I'm a bit disappointed now I've been told that it's the heat in the room that's affecting the strings now that they're not shielded by the case. I quite liked the idea of having a piano ghost - I thought it might help me play better like the phantom of the opera

I feel a bit sick. I've just sat down to play my digital which is adjacent to my acoustic, which is showing all its innards pending my teaching restoring it. I suddenly caught sight of a huge long crack in the soundboard, running diagonally from the top centre to the bottom far left, and there's another smaller crack a bit further to the right. These cracks have only just appeared, possibly this evening as I'm sure I would have noticed them before otherwise. I imagine it's the heat in my house that the piano isn't used to and possibly connected with the noises that I posted about above, although since having those noises I kept the heating lower. In Larry Fine's Piano Book, he says that contrary to most opinion, a cracked soundboard isn't the end of the world, but I still feel quite sick. Has anyone heard a piano with a cracked soundboard? Any views anyone?


Edit. I feel worse. This piano has been fine for a hundred years, and I have it for five minutes and ruin it, if it is ruined. Oh dear.

It's possible you *did* overlook it, I know that I'm guilty of not seeing the wood for the trees when I'm excited about something, so don't beat yourself up about it. How does it sound to *your* ears when you play... does it sound any different?

Also, do you have anything monitoring/adjusting the humidity in the room? I think that would be more the issue than temperature. Temperature would explain the string noises but IIRC it's humidity that the soundboard is most sensitive to

I know that when I buy an acoustic, I'm going to be setting up a very controlled environment, I'll probably spend a stupid amount on gadgets to do it as well as I'm a paranoid type...

Fingers crossed that it's not too serious, skyers..

Oh Skylark

I am so sorry to hear this and hope that things aren't as bad as you feel. I don't have any technical advice I am afraid, but I am sure that it isn't anything that you have done since you had it.

When will your teacher be around so he/she can investigate this for you.

In the meantime have a big hug from me. (((((((Skyers))))))))))

ET

Oh dear oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear that. But it may not affect the sound too much, I have known of one or two players whose violins have a crack, and persist with them for years. Are you sure it wasnt at least starting to crack when you bought it ? However as your teacher gave it a serious examination before you took it on, I think this is unlikely.

Thanks for the hugs folks. I can't get behind the strings to measure it, but the main crack must be nearly 1mm wide, the smaller crack not quite as wide. When my teacher inspected it, he may have taken the action out, I can't remember, but he gave it a thorough inspection and it's inconceivable that he could have missed the cracks. Even I couldn't have missed them if I'd been looking at the piano with the front off. So I'm certain there weren't any cracks when it was in its original home.

For the last few weeks, the action has been taken out, and virtually every time I sit down at my digital which is at right angles to the acoustic, I look across to the acoustic, and last night the cracks were the first thing I saw - they're unmissable.

I spent most of yesterday taking each of the keys off the piano and giving each one a good clean. I didn't see the cracks then and I don't honestly think I could have spent virtually all day at the piano without seeing them. Earlier yesterday evening my teacher came round to take the keybed off. It's possible that neither of us noticed the cracks then, but as I say, one of them particularly is really unmissable, which is what makes me think it only happened late yesterday evening, some time between my teacher leaving and me sitting down at my digital late last night. I think I'd better ring my teacher in a bit and tell him what's happened.

One of the things that's going through my mind is are the cracks going to get any worse, and will I get more cracks...

I want to cry

On march 6th you wrote mentioning hearing a loud noise, as if a string had broken - do you think that might have been the crack happening?

Take comfort from the man at Besbrode who said a crack didn't always matter.

It might be worth addressing the humidity though, and getting one of those reservoir things to dangle over your radiators (Betterware catalogue) - hard to imagine a change in environment having such an immediate impact, though; perhaps it was the move that jarred it?

Hopefully your teacher can tune round it.

Yes it seems very likely that that could have been the start. I went to inspect it each time I heard the noise and there was nothing to see, but it could have been the wood starting to shrink and then it's suddenly turned into a crack, as rapidly as a sheet of glass or ice cracks once it's started.



I'd forgotten that, thanks for reminding me - I'll keep my fingers crossed.



I've put a bowl of water near the piano in the meantime. I had in mind to get a humidistat once the piano was restored and working. Assuming that the piano isn't a write-off which doesn't bear thinking about I'd better make this a priority. I didn't think a change of environment would affect it so quickly either, otherwise I'd have taken precautions earlier.


I've left a message with his girlfriend and she's going to contact him and ask him to ring me back...

It seems as if your piano is in a state where you can't actually try it out to see if the sound has been affected, so I do hope it turns out not to be too serious a problem. It clearly is a problem and you are going to have to address it, but for certain your piano is not the first one in the world to have a crack in its soundboard, so I do hope you can find a suitable fix. It doesn't sound logical that it is the heat, since although the wood might expand, the strings would expand more and that would slacken off the tension that they put on the soundboard. But as has been said, maybe the dryness of the air has caused the wood to shrink. If your teacher can mend pianos, he should be able to tell.

Regarding the environment it is in, I can only say that my piano has been with me since 1966, when we had no central heating of any sort, has been moved three times, once in January, and covered nearly 400 miles in the process, and ended up where we live now with this winter the central heating being on much more than normal. It has had no special treatment regarding humidity, and in one house the only place for it was against an outside wall with no cavity, but I have kept it away from radiators. I guess I have been lucky.

I wish you the best of luck, Skyers.

It shouldn't be a major problem. Our Library Bechstein Concert Grand (100 years old) also had/has a crack in the soundboard. When we had the full recondition/action change/and restring approx 3 years ago, it was noticed by Peter Salisbury (the Bechstein UK restorer) who assured us that it was of no consequence - he was right.

I think the main problem is changes in temperature/humidity etc.. If you want a permanently warm, dry room then, once the crack has been carefully 'filled', provided the room remains warm and dry throughout the year, there should be no further problems. If, however, you decide to put a bowl of water permanently inside the piano, as one of my friends does, then once the wood has swelled and taken up the gap again you may not need to fill, just glue perhaps. If you take this route then the bowl of water will need to be there for ever, topped up from time to time.

Don't let it worry you, it will come good.

Hope the above is helpful

Thanks Gedall, it's been on my mind all day.



Yes that's been very reassuring - I've been thinking the worst so I'll keep my fingers crossed...

Awwh no! hope it all turns out okay, Skylark

Really sorry to read about this, skylark.

I do hope your teacher can give you some reassurance once he's seen it. The poor old piano's been through a lot what with the move and having bits of its innards removed; I expect the crack was waiting to happen, and it's just unfortunate that you've not had custody of it for very long.

Thanks Fran and BerkshireMum, I appreciate your kind words.

Oh skyers... Fingers and toes crossed that things work out ok. xx

Thank you Celeste, and please will you ask Matthew to cross all his digits as well!

I hope this turns out to be less damage than expected. for you. xx

Thanks DC, I'm hoping so too.

I'm sorry to hear about your piano and hope it is not as bad as you fear.


Although this is not piano related it does confirm what oldnotes says. When my husband's mother died he brought home a beautiful antique "secretaire" (one of those pieces of furniture which has drawers and what looks like a cupboard which unfolds to be a desk). This was badly cracked because his mother used to have the heating on very high and it was close to a radiator. My husband decided to let it settle into its new surroundings before having it restored but by about 18 months later all the cracks had disappeared completely and we have never needed to have any restoration work on it.

Thanks kerioboe, and it's as you and oldnotes and others have said - my teacher has rung me and he said it's nothing to worry about. He'd have been worried if the main crack had been 5-6mm wide which he's seen in some pianos, but 1mm is nothing apparently and he thinks it will eventually fill up again if I increase the humidity. I've said before that nothing fazes him and he's taken these cracks in his stride Anyway I feel a lot happier now. What a wonderful teacher I've got! Thanks for your support everybody, I really have been feeling very upset over it, particularly wondering how I was going to tell my friends that the piano they gave me was ruined. Thank goodness that's not the case - I need a "relief" smiley but this will have to do...

Skylark - that's great news, I'm so pleased to hear it. Have been thinking about this on and off since I read your original post.

PatC

So pleased for you Skylark.

What a brilliant smiley! We should have one on the forums site! Thanks DC.

Great news, skylark! I bet that's a load off your mind.

Just caught up with this thread. Hugs to you Skyers. Glad it's not as bad as you thought.

That's just what I was looking for

Thanks for all the hugs - I really needed them, and you're right, BM, it's a big load off my mind now

I am so pleased that all has turned out well...so at least you now breathe a sigh of relief.

Great News . Now you can look forward to playing it when it is ready.

[Notice that I did not say that it was all a plot to mean you had to get in touch with your piano teacher again ]