Now we’re into some real meat. In fact I was surprised not to find any dead animals deep in the bowls of this thing. Once again, sure to document the whole tear down, I slowly addressed each screw and found the pieces easily came apart. I could now see the mechanics behind this whole contraption. […]

Start from the beginning, I took the #3 black key.. A# I believe, or perhaps you know it as b-flat. Check out the felt there. Old, stiff, broken felt – time to replace with soft and new… why not make it blue. Ta-Da! You can’t see the hole, but there’s one there. Smooth action too. […]

Removed and numbered the keys and then looked at the rack. Before: Then a little cleaning…. there that wasn’t so hard. After:

Time to check out the keyboard. The #1 part of the instrument, inspected by everybody. Signatures and a Date – Today I got a good idea of how old this instrument is. Can you read it? 1879. The back side of the keys – the brass posts they sit on seem to have a little […]

The paint was quickly dry in the May sun of Tucson and I had brought the piece back inside where it could rest until my next chance to work on it. May 7th presented a nice opportunity quickly enough. I evaluated the piece and then looked into reconstruction. With my tools readied and went to […]

It needed to be Black – like space… without the stars. I was timid, but eager to begin to say the least. I rode over to Ace and talked to the guys there. “I’m looking for a paint to last. Something to replace a paint from an old organ I’ve got…” I probably tried to […]

Today was my first real test, I felt, of how well I could take things apart, clean them up, and put them back together. I fell like I did a good job of taking it apart… but more importantly I was wise enough to take pictures ahead of time for to put it back together […]

The glue dried on the other parts and I continued to inspect the pieces and asses the need for repair.Today I looked over the larger vent cover. Just as weatherd as the other parts, I started to get use to the fact that all parts needed to be refinished. The fabric on this piece was […]

With a pile of pieces off the structure I could now investigate the problems and begin to assess the rebuild. I started with the easy pieces. The keyboard cover was cracked across the front, putting a split through the manufacture’s label. The wood was also quite weathered. My first repair was to lightly sand down […]

I’m moving fast on this puppy, tearing it down and doing some mild cleaning on my way. I’m thinking I should start some refinishing soon, but first I want to see the innards of this sucker and the best way to attack it’s defiencies. Here you see the mechanisms from the draws the actuate the […]