Gutting an upright piano

[IJWesley]

I require two prop upright pianos for a production of Little Women and have been offered two clapped out uprights to do with as I please as long as I don't return them.

 

There is no requirement for the pianos to be practical, but they must be easily to move around the stage.

 

Is there anything I should be aware of before accepting the kind offer of the donor? Is it actually worth the effort to remove the insides, or is it as quick to build something out of ply?

 

Any advice would be welcome

 

Ian

[obaka-san]

If your not worried about keeping it overly strong an afternoon with a screwdriver, prybar and a saw of some sort will see them gutted.

 

It's pretty easy to see how they come apart once you have one sitting infront of you. Once you get the mechanisms out you'll probably want to cut the soundboard out and notch/drill out the larger parts of the wooden frame for more weight loss. I did one recently that needed to have an actor on it so the wooden frame had to be left alone and that bugger was still a good two man lift

[Jammie300]

Just thinking aloud here,

 

Wouldn't the strings being at high tensions pose a problem?

 

Trying to remove them safely could be a problem?

 

James

[WiLL]

An easy way to detension them is to loosen the tuning nut at the top to slacken the strings off. Then they can be removed safely. Always advise the wearing of safety specs or full face shield when cutting them though, if you are too lazy to loosen them all the way.

[IJWesley]

Thanks for the advice

 

Ian

[Jivemaster]

The weight of a piano is largely in the iron frame and the timber frame, these are the last pieces to take out and then the case may not be self supporting.

[GridGirl]

Put decent wheels on them if you want them to move even vaguely easily - the wheels normally on pianos are rubbish! Something else which occurs to me is that if you remove all the guts, you may find they become top-heavy and out of balance - might need to stack a stage weight or two in the bottom to keep them balanced.

[Pattern123]

Easier to build an imitation from Ply, I would say.

[Malcolm Gordon]

Definitely worth gutting, in my opinion. We were given one in a nice mahogany case from a church hall, that we gutted in situ to save weight when shifting it to our store.

Remove all the loose pieces and the action. Remove the keys (but keep them in order, very important) to avoid them being damaged or falling out as you tip the case. Remove the hinged lid and the top, if you can. It's also worth removing carefully and retaining the cloth from the back of the piano, unless it's too torn. Slacken all the strings. A box spanner is useful here, as the tuning pins are packed close together. The heads of the pins vary in size from one piano to another and are not necessarily a standard size, so if you can borrow a spanner set from a friendly piano tuner (very friendly, they are their working tools) it can help.

It is not really feasible to uncoil the strings from each pin (there are more than 200 in a 88-key piano!); quicker to cut them, once slack, with really heavy duty wire cutters (piano wire is very hard). As already mentioned, eye protection is a must, as well as substantial gloves, the cut ends being very sharp. It's also important to have enough strong people about to manipulate the piano as you strip it.

What happens next depends somewhat on whether the piano has a half-iron or full iron frame. However, we removed every bolt or screw that looked as if it held the frame and also removed the cross bar at the back of the piano. Eventually we were able to remove the frame, which was then broken up with a club hammer for disposal. The bracing parts were then replaced, as was the backcloth, with a loose flap so that a small speaker can be stood inside.

With the keys and loose panels relaced, you should end up with a piano that bears much closer scrutiny than a plywood mock-up. The keys should still work, like a dummy keyboard, and are much easier to "play" than a plank. The remaining case was still heavy (for its tonal qualities) but not unstable, in my experience, as the rear wheels are often on short outriggers extending backwards.

We weighed the resulting piano, with platform scales, and selected rubber-tired castors that could take the load. Although it's still a two-man lift, or possibly more, the piano can be pushed across stage with one hand.

Although obtained for "Quartet" seven years ago, the piano has been used in several plays since.

[Johnno]

OT, but anyone remember when there used to be attempts at setting the record for breaking an upright piano and shoving all the bits through a six (?) inch hole?

 

Do people still do it? If so you could do it after the production as a fundraiser for your favourite charity.

[TomHoward]

Easy enough as long as you don't have to assemble it again...

[Jivemaster]

Possibly the easiest work round is to change the wheels on the piano for something more suited to regular movement of that load. There was a steel bracket that fitted under a piano and had a wheel front and back didn't add to the height but did add to the stability by putting a wheel behind the piano.

[J Pearce]

Hire pianos often have this sort of arrangement fitted.

 

An omega sort of shape bracket that sits under the piano then raises up front and back to offset the height of the wheels.

Like this:

 

-|___|-

 

Allows proper swivel castors but normal playing height.

[Tbird8057]

I spent the past 4-5 hours working on gutting an upright. Everything was going well until I hit this major snag. The harp on this piano was glued to the rest of the piano. I was able to pry most of it away from the wood, but the part behind the tuning pegs is too strong bonded to the wood and now I'm stuck here. I'd imagine older pianos don't use glue which would make this a thousand times easier. Jus something to consider before starting on gutting a piano.

[Malcolm Gordon]

now I'm stuck here.

From the joints that you have been able to separate are you able to determine the type of glue used? Hot-melt glue might be reactivated with the judicious application of heat from a hot air gun, or animal glue with water.