serviceguy
Well-Known Member
Does this look like is worth the asking price?
Fixing pianos, bikes, and myself **New, now with accordions and concertinas!**
- Thread starter Karate Monkey
- Start date
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
@serviceguy how bad do you want it? Based on the condition of the keys (yellowed) and the case (chipped/beat to hell), it's like to have some broken action pieces, and perhaps moth-bitten felt (hammers/dampers/etc).
Personally, I'd pass, since you'll have to have it tuned after moving, and it'll probably break 1 or 2 strings when they tune it. Not expensive to replace, per se, but also probably not worth it. People be giving pianos away all the time, in better condition, too.
Personally, I'd pass, since you'll have to have it tuned after moving, and it'll probably break 1 or 2 strings when they tune it. Not expensive to replace, per se, but also probably not worth it. People be giving pianos away all the time, in better condition, too.
serviceguy
Well-Known Member
It just caught my eye on my local Facebook group, I thought I would ask, you never know it turned up being the Stradivari of pianos! Can’t even really play piano, I used to play the accordion when I was a kid until I was bullied out of it by other kids in the neighborhood, not really a popular instrument at the time. Always regretted caving in to other people stupidity to my own disadvantage! I was told I was really good, we’ll never know now!
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
If you still have the accordion (or a concertina, even better) I'll find a piano for you.
serviceguy
Well-Known Member
I do but it's in Italy, similar to this, a pretty basic piano accordion 80 button model. I was going to eventually transition to a button type but never made it. Last time I tried to play the right/left hand and opening/closing coordination was still there but my music reading skills are gone...
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
I might be killed for it, but I have a hand-pumped harmonium, as well. I think this is safer than trying to sneak in another piano 
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
I received the spokes I needed to finish the front wheel a couple of days ago, and I got to it yesterday.
Today, I got a ~11 mile ride under my legs, and near the end, I--again--found myself falling back into the groove of single speed. Of interest, is that I managed to fix the issues that I was having with the hastily-setup saddle (it was tiled forward/loose, which meant that it was creaking/worthless for sitting on, even when I could) the first time I 'rode' it--for all of 20 minutes when I happened to poke through the outskirts of Allaire on the way home, and noted that it was sopping wet--even though I (again) winged tightening it, and it wasn't tight enough. CREAAAAAK CRAAAACK CLICK. Eventually it slid back and wedged in the saddle clamp/stopped doing it. I fixed it when I got home, cause screw it, I was only out for an hour. I can't remember why I put the bell where the shifter was, but it served very well as a reminder to get up and pedal when I kept hitting it [DING. DING. DING DING] for an easier gear. I haven't used clipless pedals in several years/bikes, and it showed. I kept hitting the frame with my heel/trying to rotate my ankle out more, so I had to fix that when I was done, too. I'm sure I'd have hurt myself for longer than an hour, but I didn't, so[...]. Anyway, I noticed that my technique hopping the bike was greatly improved after years of flats, so I'm going to chalk that up for a win. The "Pike" (and I call it that because it's a Pike 29+ model, which is really a Lyrik that has been traveled down to 120) is a perfect fork for this, tons of support, and a better ride even than when I was sitting 99% of the time.
I also have started to notice something interesting...for the longest time, I've had problems getting my heart rate to consistently average in the 150s, but over the last month or so, my average is creeping up from the low 140s, and I'm not feeling like crap doing it. So...yay me, I guess?
Today, I got a ~11 mile ride under my legs, and near the end, I--again--found myself falling back into the groove of single speed. Of interest, is that I managed to fix the issues that I was having with the hastily-setup saddle (it was tiled forward/loose, which meant that it was creaking/worthless for sitting on, even when I could) the first time I 'rode' it--for all of 20 minutes when I happened to poke through the outskirts of Allaire on the way home, and noted that it was sopping wet--even though I (again) winged tightening it, and it wasn't tight enough. CREAAAAAK CRAAAACK CLICK. Eventually it slid back and wedged in the saddle clamp/stopped doing it. I fixed it when I got home, cause screw it, I was only out for an hour. I can't remember why I put the bell where the shifter was, but it served very well as a reminder to get up and pedal when I kept hitting it [DING. DING. DING DING] for an easier gear. I haven't used clipless pedals in several years/bikes, and it showed. I kept hitting the frame with my heel/trying to rotate my ankle out more, so I had to fix that when I was done, too. I'm sure I'd have hurt myself for longer than an hour, but I didn't, so[...]. Anyway, I noticed that my technique hopping the bike was greatly improved after years of flats, so I'm going to chalk that up for a win. The "Pike" (and I call it that because it's a Pike 29+ model, which is really a Lyrik that has been traveled down to 120) is a perfect fork for this, tons of support, and a better ride even than when I was sitting 99% of the time.
I also have started to notice something interesting...for the longest time, I've had problems getting my heart rate to consistently average in the 150s, but over the last month or so, my average is creeping up from the low 140s, and I'm not feeling like crap doing it. So...yay me, I guess?
serviceguy
Well-Known Member
Love the bike. Screams for a belt drive...I received the spokes I needed to finish the front wheel a couple of days ago, and I got to it yesterday.
Today, I got a ~11 mile ride under my legs, and near the end, I--again--found myself falling back into the groove of single speed. Of interest, is that I managed to fix the issues that I was having with the hastily-setup saddle (it was tiled forward/loose, which meant that it was creaking/worthless for sitting on, even when I could) the first time I 'rode' it--for all of 20 minutes when I happened to poke through the outskirts of Allaire on the way home, and noted that it was sopping wet--even though I (again) winged tightening it, and it wasn't tight enough. CREAAAAAK CRAAAACK CLICK. Eventually it slid back and wedged in the saddle clamp/stopped doing it. I fixed it when I got home, cause screw it, I was only out for an hour. I can't remember why I put the bell where the shifter was, but it served very well as a reminder to get up and pedal when I kept hitting it [DING. DING. DING DING] for an easier gear. I haven't used clipless pedals in several years/bikes, and it showed. I kept hitting the frame with my heel/trying to rotate my ankle out more, so I had to fix that when I was done, too. I'm sure I'd have hurt myself for longer than an hour, but I didn't, so[...]. Anyway, I noticed that my technique hopping the bike was greatly improved after years of flats, so I'm going to chalk that up for a win. The "Pike" (and I call it that because it's a Pike 29+ model, which is really a Lyrik that has been traveled down to 120) is a perfect fork for this, tons of support, and a better ride even than when I was sitting 99% of the time.
I also have started to notice something interesting...for the longest time, I've had problems getting my heart rate to consistently average in the 150s, but over the last month or so, my average is creeping up from the low 140s, and I'm not feeling like crap doing it. So...yay me, I guess?
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
Stache is a bad candidate for belts--dropouts are notoriously flexy. It's okay, though, the White Industries hub is a buzz saw, so that kills must of the draw for me.
If I found sprockets/belt for cheap, I might consider it...
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
Have a great solstice, however you celebrate it
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
We haven't owned a tube organ since I was very young, and they obviously don't make them anymore, so take this with a grain of salt.
If I recall correctly, our organ had 6-8 tubes that helped to control where the flow of electricity went in the organ (these are individual/combinations of stops--or sounds--the organ can make). On top of that, there was about a thousand feet of wire in the organ we had (Hammonds were a bit less complicated than church organs, so that weren't quite so heavy), and more than a small handful of large capacitors. My understanding is that between the capacitors needing to charge, the tubes needing to warm up (they are kind of like incandescent light bulbs--not immediately fully functional), and the obscene amount of wire, it took a bit of time. Anyway, that's how the technician explained it to 7-year-old me.
Our later organ--bought from the church when they replaced it--was similar, even though that was 'solid state' (no tubes, but common microcircuits in organs weren't in use at that time), but it had at least 3x the wiring as the old organ (weighed roughly 800 pounds), and quite a few more stops. The umbilical (it's not fair to call it a "power cord") was a bundle of various wires that was ~15 millimeters thick.
Compared to a modern electric organ: using computerization/miniaturization, it is the same size, but weighs about 250 pounds. It still needs time to work, but that's because it has a computer in it, now.
If I recall correctly, our organ had 6-8 tubes that helped to control where the flow of electricity went in the organ (these are individual/combinations of stops--or sounds--the organ can make). On top of that, there was about a thousand feet of wire in the organ we had (Hammonds were a bit less complicated than church organs, so that weren't quite so heavy), and more than a small handful of large capacitors. My understanding is that between the capacitors needing to charge, the tubes needing to warm up (they are kind of like incandescent light bulbs--not immediately fully functional), and the obscene amount of wire, it took a bit of time. Anyway, that's how the technician explained it to 7-year-old me.
Our later organ--bought from the church when they replaced it--was similar, even though that was 'solid state' (no tubes, but common microcircuits in organs weren't in use at that time), but it had at least 3x the wiring as the old organ (weighed roughly 800 pounds), and quite a few more stops. The umbilical (it's not fair to call it a "power cord") was a bundle of various wires that was ~15 millimeters thick.
Compared to a modern electric organ: using computerization/miniaturization, it is the same size, but weighs about 250 pounds. It still needs time to work, but that's because it has a computer in it, now.
I played with a guy who had a Hammond B3. Moving that thing sucked out loud. Those tubes did take some time to warm up. He would plug it in and walk away and snag a beer. It had to simmer for a bit.
johnbryanpeters
Well-Known Member
Wire length would have exactly nothing to do with warmup time. nor, really, would be capacitor charging. Warmup time for vacuum tubes would be the limiting factor. A vacuum tube then was what a transistor would be today.
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
@johnbryanpeters I wouldn't think length of wire has anything to do with it, being that power transmission is mostly instantaneous, but 20-something-years-ago clouds the memory, ya know?
The capacitor thing, I'm not so sure. The main caps in that organ were roughly half the size of a 21700 cell, and there were quite a few--at least one for each stop (21 in all). Remember pulling apart disposable cameras to get at the capacitor in there...these were a good bit bigger. My education took a totally different route, and while I am competent enough to replace many of those electronics (at least then, before miniaturization hit), they might as well be black boxes. Yes, resistors resist voltage, transistors amplify/switch, diodes block it, capacitors store it temporarily, but designing a circuit--let alone sussing out the function of the parts--forget about it. I only recall what the tubes in our first organ did because the organ still worked without them, just not all of the settings. That was back before the flood of tubes that came into the country from Russia, and the best the tech could offer was "if you hold on to it, maybe I can find some good tubes from another instrument". It was not a hopeful proclamation. Shame too, as that original organ was a rotary, and had quite a nice sound (even though compared to a pipe organ that it was trying to emulate, it was not).
Incidentally, said second organ is languishing unused due to an accident when it was moved (the umbilical was damaged, and the company that made it, Roger, doesn't have diagrams from back then). If anyone wanted it for free, I'd be happy to facilitate it. Maybe some day I can take a few pictures of the inside when I visit my parents.
The capacitor thing, I'm not so sure. The main caps in that organ were roughly half the size of a 21700 cell, and there were quite a few--at least one for each stop (21 in all). Remember pulling apart disposable cameras to get at the capacitor in there...these were a good bit bigger. My education took a totally different route, and while I am competent enough to replace many of those electronics (at least then, before miniaturization hit), they might as well be black boxes. Yes, resistors resist voltage, transistors amplify/switch, diodes block it, capacitors store it temporarily, but designing a circuit--let alone sussing out the function of the parts--forget about it. I only recall what the tubes in our first organ did because the organ still worked without them, just not all of the settings. That was back before the flood of tubes that came into the country from Russia, and the best the tech could offer was "if you hold on to it, maybe I can find some good tubes from another instrument". It was not a hopeful proclamation. Shame too, as that original organ was a rotary, and had quite a nice sound (even though compared to a pipe organ that it was trying to emulate, it was not).
Incidentally, said second organ is languishing unused due to an accident when it was moved (the umbilical was damaged, and the company that made it, Roger, doesn't have diagrams from back then). If anyone wanted it for free, I'd be happy to facilitate it. Maybe some day I can take a few pictures of the inside when I visit my parents.
send pics of damage - while i don't want it, you know how i like to fix stuff....
did a lot of tube stuff with my Dad - he was a radio guy in the army. mostly testing and replacing - what else was there?
will send a pic of the electro-mechanical workings of my puck bowler!
i'm surprised it doesn't have a vac component.
we had a home organ that had a mechanical tremolo (i think it was tremolo) it spun at a variable speed and opened and closed a door
allowing sound out of the box. other than speed, it didn't have any other setting!
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
That sounds like a rotary organ of the type commonly sold as drawbar organs...aka, almost every Hammond made. The drawbars, which sat on a course above/side of the keyboard allow you to finely tune both the tremolo of a given stop, as well as the partials (related reading) associated with them. They are typically found in theatres/sports arenas (hence that sound that you come to expect from the organist at a hockey game).
The box you describe is known as the 'swell' box in organ nomenclature, and is used to make fine adjustments (past super coarse loud/soft) to the stops attached to it. The most dramatic uses of them are typically when used to create a distance effect, as of far off sound. It is possible that you are describing a different function, though mechanical louvers are common devices in such a system.
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
I am now two weeks post microdiscectomy/laminectomy. Around 9 months ago, I had a nagging pain tingling down my legs that wasn't getting better with rest, so I headed to the orthopedist, who ordered an MRI. The news, while not 'good', was not terrible: extent damage from a fall down a flight of concrete stairs 10 (11? 12?) years ago was causing a bulging disc to press on my spine. The prognosis at the time was no need for surgical intervention, physical therapy and cortisone shots should be able to manage the pain. I muddled along for the next bit, sometimes having to take a few days to a week off from riding, but otherwise being able to function "normally".
Fast forward 7 months, and over the course of the next 4 weeks, the pain/tingling would get gradually worse; a new MRI showed the disc below was also (or maybe always?) pressing on the spine, as well. Cortisone was no longer making any real effect on relief from the pain, and I was just starting to have trouble walking for extended periods of time (@pooriggy probably remembers this as the time where I suddenly disappeared from working on the trail in Perrineville). A (re)consult with the surgeon concluded that I was now definitely a candidate for surgical intervention, given the symptoms/treatments leading up to this.
Just my luck, the surgeon had an opening in his schedule from someone who had moved away in 2 weeks; I set out on a whirlwind sprint to get my pre-surgical testing done, including having to flush out a sinus infection courtesy of some snot-gobbler, brought home by my Other. The day of the surgery arrived, and I was driven to the surgical center, only to realize that I didn't have my CV card with me, nor my phone (which they told me not to bring, natch). Well, I sped [literally] back home, couldn't find the card, dug furiously for my phone, sped back, got there 10 minutes late, was scrubbed in, and proceeded to wait for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, I got my sedative, blacked out, and woke up 2.5-something hours later with a really sore back. Shuffled out of the surgery center as soon as I was cognizant [nb: very cognizant of the pain. Very. ], I spent a very miserable 2 days barely moving around the house. For those following along at home: if a surgeon offers to do the above outpatient for you, seriously consider: no. Obviously, I survived--and was even playing the organ Christmas Eve/Day (note: that sucked). I'm now mostly mobile, and have a cool scar, and a not cool story about how I got it.
Leading up to this, I had bought a concertina during the summer, filling a long-standing want of mine. I'm not great at it, but I'm improving, and bringing a different facet of my music theory skills up to use. During Christmas, I bought myself a present: someone on eBay selling a "used concertina" for $95. Me, being ever aware, immediately noticed that it was a reasonably good mid-range Stagi, though perhaps an older model. I snapped it up, and mostly forgot about it. Well, it arrived, and based on the fact that the bellows are leather, I was sure it was an older model. I gave it a quick play and realized that it was either leaking badly through the body, or the bellows--either way, I knew what I was getting into when I bought it.
Disassembly of the concertina showed some obvious stuff (cracks in the ends, one in one of the soundboards, leathers on the reeds that needed replacing), and some un-obvious stuff (like crappy woodworking in the reed pans that caused splinters to get sucked into some of the reeds--explains that weird sound, and some cracked glues around the sides of the reed pans, which was a leak source). I got a good look at the reeds, and saw them in good, largely un-rusted condition (there's a bit of filigree on a reed that I can easily polish off), and saw that they were hand-ground blued-steel--good quality.
So, there's some stuff on tap to fix up the concertina to good playing condition (fix the broken post, pull off the rest of the veneer and put new stuff on, polish/straighten the ends, replace reed leathers (none shown here), seal up the leaks in the body--if still present--with accordion wax, and potentially rebuild the bellows [that's going to happen anyway, but I want to make sure the rest of the body is worth saving before doing that]. The Stagi would make a better travelling instrument that my other concertina, which uses traditional wax attachment for the reed pans...well known for being temperamental along the coast, with wild swings in humidity.
To paraphrase the back of my Sidi hat, "[it's] All the Italian (I) can handle", at the moment.
Fast forward 7 months, and over the course of the next 4 weeks, the pain/tingling would get gradually worse; a new MRI showed the disc below was also (or maybe always?) pressing on the spine, as well. Cortisone was no longer making any real effect on relief from the pain, and I was just starting to have trouble walking for extended periods of time (@pooriggy probably remembers this as the time where I suddenly disappeared from working on the trail in Perrineville). A (re)consult with the surgeon concluded that I was now definitely a candidate for surgical intervention, given the symptoms/treatments leading up to this.
Just my luck, the surgeon had an opening in his schedule from someone who had moved away in 2 weeks; I set out on a whirlwind sprint to get my pre-surgical testing done, including having to flush out a sinus infection courtesy of some snot-gobbler, brought home by my Other. The day of the surgery arrived, and I was driven to the surgical center, only to realize that I didn't have my CV card with me, nor my phone (which they told me not to bring, natch). Well, I sped [literally] back home, couldn't find the card, dug furiously for my phone, sped back, got there 10 minutes late, was scrubbed in, and proceeded to wait for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, I got my sedative, blacked out, and woke up 2.5-something hours later with a really sore back. Shuffled out of the surgery center as soon as I was cognizant [nb: very cognizant of the pain. Very. ], I spent a very miserable 2 days barely moving around the house. For those following along at home: if a surgeon offers to do the above outpatient for you, seriously consider: no. Obviously, I survived--and was even playing the organ Christmas Eve/Day (note: that sucked). I'm now mostly mobile, and have a cool scar, and a not cool story about how I got it.
Leading up to this, I had bought a concertina during the summer, filling a long-standing want of mine. I'm not great at it, but I'm improving, and bringing a different facet of my music theory skills up to use. During Christmas, I bought myself a present: someone on eBay selling a "used concertina" for $95. Me, being ever aware, immediately noticed that it was a reasonably good mid-range Stagi, though perhaps an older model. I snapped it up, and mostly forgot about it. Well, it arrived, and based on the fact that the bellows are leather, I was sure it was an older model. I gave it a quick play and realized that it was either leaking badly through the body, or the bellows--either way, I knew what I was getting into when I bought it.
Disassembly of the concertina showed some obvious stuff (cracks in the ends, one in one of the soundboards, leathers on the reeds that needed replacing), and some un-obvious stuff (like crappy woodworking in the reed pans that caused splinters to get sucked into some of the reeds--explains that weird sound, and some cracked glues around the sides of the reed pans, which was a leak source). I got a good look at the reeds, and saw them in good, largely un-rusted condition (there's a bit of filigree on a reed that I can easily polish off), and saw that they were hand-ground blued-steel--good quality.
So, there's some stuff on tap to fix up the concertina to good playing condition (fix the broken post, pull off the rest of the veneer and put new stuff on, polish/straighten the ends, replace reed leathers (none shown here), seal up the leaks in the body--if still present--with accordion wax, and potentially rebuild the bellows [that's going to happen anyway, but I want to make sure the rest of the body is worth saving before doing that]. The Stagi would make a better travelling instrument that my other concertina, which uses traditional wax attachment for the reed pans...well known for being temperamental along the coast, with wild swings in humidity.
To paraphrase the back of my Sidi hat, "[it's] All the Italian (I) can handle", at the moment.
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