Antique Upright Leonard & co. Restoration

[jjmancini]

Hey Everyone!

I was curious if anyone would have comments on my newly aquired Leonard and Co. upright player piano (With no player in stalled) I believe circa 1940's. I have decided to clean it up and restore as much as my budget allows (not much). But I was curious of the following questions...

Does anyone here have any history with a Leonard and Co. piano?

Is it worth restoring?

Where can I buy new felt and other things to replace?

Should I have it restrung?

Thanks a bunch for any info!

jjmancini

[jjmancini]

Would it interest anyone if I told them the sound board is 52 inches tall?

I'm just trying to figure out a little more about this piano. THanks!

[Michele Felice]

You will be able to find out useful information about your piano by examining it. There once were hundreds of piano builders in this country and most of the information about them and their instruments is no longer available, apart from the approximate year of manufacture from the Pierce Piano Atlas which you may find in your public library.

Inspecting a piano takes some experience and skill and should be done by a piano technician. You can make some elementary judgement about your piano's condition by playing it. How is the action? What does the piano sound like? Is the bass clear or "tubby" sounding (unresonant). Is there any sustain in the sixth octave and above? Is the fourth "A" (the lowest one is called A0) at or near 440 Hz?

You can easily remove the music desk and upper front panel. Look at the strings--are they rusty, are any broken? Are the hammers worn flat where they strike the strings? Remove the bottom front panel and look at the bridges are they cracked or split? Do the pedals work?

Unfortunately old uprights are usually not worth fixing up because their actions are worn out, soundboards have lost their acoustical properties and the strings are dead. Pinblocks (the solid or laminated wood into which the tuning pins are driven) may no longer be capable of holding the tuning pins tight enough so that the piano can be tuned.

If you are interested in learning about working on pianos, and you think the piano still has some life left in it (it still has something of a good sound), you can rebuild the action, replace the hammers and restring the piano. If the soundboard and bridges are intact, that is; if not, forget about it. It is a big job to do this and the cost of parts will be several hundred dollars, minimum.
A technician might charge a few thousand dollars to do this work, but it is very unlikely that the piano's condition will justify this expenditure.

[jjmancini]

Thanks for the great response!

That was exactly what I was looking for.


The piano sounds great! It has not been tuned in about 5 years, and acually, it is still holding it's last tuning very well. The sound is very rich and the sustain of the 6th octave and above is good.

I have already begun doing some basic restoration.

I am:

• replacing all the felts
• replacing the hammers
• replacing the lower strings from steel to copper
• replacing the old cracked ivoy and ebony keytops with the more resistant plastic ones.

Thanks again for some great comments!
If anyone has any information on this piano from the Pierce Piano Atlas, that would be great! Thanks a bunch!