1890 Decker & Bros 8' Grand Piano

Refinished evenly, even though it had five different kinds of veneer underneath. Here are the unique items we did to it:

- It had 'snap-on' stickers that attached from the whippen assembly to the rocker arm capstain at the back of the key. What this means simply is that on this action, the keys
and the action were actually attached....very unusual, hard to work with and delicate to replace the felt cushions.

- It had the old rocker arm capstains, which would be replaced with an elegant single small brass post in a few years after this was made. Steinway was already doing this at that time as they invented it. These old ones are a pain to adjust in the position they are located.


- It had no adjustment apparatus for positioning the jack inside the repetition lever window. This invention, once made, has been a standard ever since and makes it easy to adjust 'after touch'. The only way to adjust the position was by adding or shimming different layers of felt into place on the Decker. Most of them were within tolerance once I discovered other more glaring issues.

- The back checks, or the devise that 'catches' the hammer after the key is depressed, was of an old and very low diameter design. Since this piano was made the back checks are made a 1/2 inch taller which makes for easier regulation and more direct 'catches'. This was a real bear to figure out why the hammers on this action would not 'check' until I replaced a back check and the problem partially went away...thus I replaced all of the back checks.

- The repetition arm had a felt 'tube' cut into it that was supposed to support the springs in the window. I am sure that at one time it did that job, though after 125 years of poor spring adjustments all they did was to get in the way and make checking of the hammers near impossible, as the poorly bent springs would bind up against these small pieces of felt and the hammers would 'bubble' up and down with no solution. 95% of all companies never installed these because there really is no purpose for them. The worst ones were removed and viola', away went that problem.

- The most unusual item of all was the damper assembly. This is the part behind the action that holds the damper wires which attach above the strings and move up and down when a key in depressed so it will sing or not. This damper assembly has no hinges, no flanges, nothing that attaches to the body of the piano. They ride up and down straddling two pieces of medium gauge taut wire. The wire is scored with a precise turning up or down spiral for grab and attachment. The wire then was grabbed by two unusual screws( one slotted like a repetition lever screw) and turned up and down for attachment or the wire. There is no way to adjust the dampers left and right, forward or back with this system. Because of the spiraled wire and screws, it would only face one way loosely. Very unique and quite difficult to adjust as they did not allow for many adjustments.

- The pedal assembly had no adjustment screws anywhere like all square Grands, so we had to go in and out numerous times with various sizes of felt to get a close adjustment for them to work. The soft pedal barely does anything as the assembly did not leave room for broader adjustments.

- All in all it works well, plays easy and light and even though there is a slight ringing after one hits the keys, it performs well for a piano from this era. Without more ways to be able to adjust the dampers, they do as well as can be expected. I am pleased with it now keeping in mind when it was made. Dampers have been the bane of manufacturers for centuries until they got it right in the early 20th century. It still has a faint ring even though we had virtually every size damper felt to try. It is a true period piece that will do best with pieces written in the mid 19th century played on it. This is a piano that would have been a contemporary of Liszt in his senior years.