Piano Renovation

Background

We have an old German-made Lindahl piano.  It sounds ‘honky’.  When last tuned, about 10 years ago, our tuner, Martin Tucker, said it was palliative care. 

Recently, a friend suggested replacing our old piano with a better old piano, which are free and readily available.  Piano tuner Martin advised choosing something less than 100 years old as most all old pianos are worn out, one way or another.  He advised that we should budget $500-1000 for a free piano, to cover moving and tuning, then ongoing tuning every year or two.  He said if we wanted to not spend money, we should buy an electric piano.

We don’t play the piano, but we enjoy others who visit our house having a play.  ‘Well’, Martin said, ‘with an electric piano, they won’t do that.  Electric pianos don’t have the soul that invites people to open it and have a play.’  Hmmm.  So I decided to buy an electric piano and install it into our old upright – combining the sound quality of the new with the soul of the old.

I visited one piano shop and was shown a Yamaha P-145 for $700.  Internet reviews were universally positive, as was advice from our nephew Chris, who plays piano and has owned several electric ones.

The Project

I told my friend Hamish about my idea and he was interested in helping me, so I pinned him down to Anzac Day.  The day before, I bought a Yamaha P-145.  I also invited Chris to come help.

Taking the piano apart was satisfying as it came apart easily in about an hour.  It would have been even quicker and easier with somebody on hand who knew about piano assembly. 

(The YouTube search I had done about piano disassembly showed people with sledgehammers and angle grinders and had comments about how dangerous what they had done was – cutting strings without first releasing tension, etc.  This research was of no use to me.)

A challenge was that the Yamaha piano was wider than the space between the ends of the Lindahl, so I would need to rout out the ends.

For the tops of the keys to be located 60mm above the top of the shelf under them, the shelf which holds the keys had to be cut out and routed out to hold and support the electric keyboard which was much deeper than 60mm.  This was my design for cutting and routing:

• a 5-7mm lip to support it all the way around, 22mm deep
• an extra lip across most of the front edge, about 4mm lower
• a cut-out at the back for accessing the plugs and sockets
• a cut-out all the way through the shelf in the shaded area.

This we did.

It was satisfying when we placed the lid over the electric piano and it closed perfectly.

Chris demonstrated how the electric piano sounded much better when sitting over the old piano and making use of its resonance chamber.  I hadn’t thought of that.  Lucky I had vetoed Hamish’s idea of converting the top half of the cabinet for bookshelves!

The electric piano was 37mm wider than the space available, so we needed to rout out the ends, 19mm on each side, to this design.

Routing was a challenge because the surface was not flat due to the supports for the lid.  I resolved this problem by cutting some plywood to create a temporary higher surface on which to support the router.

After routing the ends, I was pleased that the electric piano fit in place perfectly when lifted up from below.  However, the shelf containing the electric piano could not be installed due to its new increased depth.  To get it in, I needed to cut down the front at the sides (circled in image) by 70mm.  I first checked that these new holes would be ultimately hidden by the low vertical supports.

I also drilled holes to support the keyboard shelf using modern screws, with the screws aligned in the middle of the ultimate (reduced width) sides.  The arrow and expanded image show where an original screw location would no longer work.

The electric piano fits – yay!  Then back in the lounge room, with new adjustable feet of a better height than the worn-out oversize wheels.

Chris had a great idea for the sustain pedal – he found a place to insert it within the original lever mechanism.  When the original pedal is depressed, so is the new plastic pedal.  I do enjoy having clever helpers like Chris.

Finishing touches:

• Reinsertion of the original hammer mechanism to provide damping of strings.
• Slight shortening of the rod that holds the bottom panel in, due to slightly reduced space.
• A hole in the bottom for the power lead.
• New screw holes for attaching low vertical supports – without needing to tip the piano over to do it. (1) This allows easier access to remove the electric piano if necessary.
• A cut-out to allow access to the rear sockets without removing the whole bottom panel from the piano – for use of headphones or line-out. (2,3,4)

• An appropriately sized print-out of the hidden controls to attach inside the lid so people can easily locate them.

This was a fun and satisfying project, and the renovated piano sounds great!