How it Works
After receiving a phone call from you, our technicians will evaluate the piano and decide if rebuilding is the best approach to take.
We find that most customers have enough knowledge of their instrument to know whether the piano should be rebuilt or simply replaced. If the decision is to continue with the process, we will transport the piano via Keyboard Carriage to the rebuilding site. The following steps are then taken during the rebuilding process:
- Give a closer inspection to the instrument, including the state of the soundboard
- Remove screws and disassemble piano
- Remove dampers and store
- Remove the plate
- Strip, sand and refinish the cabinet and other parts
- Replace keytops
- Clean, sand and refinish the plate
- Cut out, duplicate and replace the pinblock
- Inspect the action
- Rebush action parts if needed
- Replace old hammers with new hammers
- Reinstall plate
- Restring the piano
- Chip the piano to bring the strings close to pitch
- Cut off old damper felts
- Clean and refinish (if necessary) tops of damper blocks
- Replace damper felts on the piano
- Regulate new dampers
- Regulate action
- Reassemble other parts of piano
- Fine tune piano to concert pitch A 440
- Transport piano back to original location
Not every step on the list will be required for each piano. For example, some customers request to leave the original ivory keytops on the keys. Therefore, we would skip step #6 for that particular piano.
*Please note: There is a small evaluation fee that is deducted from the total if you choose to have your piano rebuilt by American Piano Rebuilders.
Refinishing Only
When a customer chooses to refinish the piano only, the following steps are included:
- Case repaired and refinished
- Hardware buffed and cleaned
- Soundboard and plate cleaned
Evaluation of a Piano
A typical evaluation of a piano will include inspecting the following parts:
- Bass and treble strings
- Tuning pins (the metal pins that the strings wrap around)
- Pin block (the wooden block under the plate that the tuning pins are driven into)
- Dampers (the white felt pieces that lift when the right pedal is depressed)
- Hammers
- Shanks and Flanges of piano action (the wooden parts attached to the hammers)
- Case (the outside body of the piano)
- Soundboard (the vibrating board in the belly of the piano)
- Plate (the cast iron “harp”)
- Action (the moving parts between the keys and the hammers)
- Bushings (felt parts that cover wooden parts at certain pivot points)
- Hardware (hinges, etc.)
- Bridges (the curved pieces of wood that the strings pass over)
