Friday, March 27, 2009

Stodart/Action



Now it's time to turn to the restoration of the action.
Unfortunately, it appears to have been "restored" once before, and poorly so.
Most of the cloth and leather has been replaced, leaving little alternative but for me to remove and replace most or all of it.
Most of the hammers have been improperly re-glued, some out of order and improperly angled, and several shanks have been replaced, curled, or are missing entirely.
The backchecks are twice as thick as necessary, resulting in the over compensation of the regulation of their angle and subsequent interference with the damper lever upstop rail.
The most common question I have been asked by others who have seen this action has been "are you going to replace the missing ivories?" to which I would reply "the missing ivories are the least of the challenges this poor, mistreated action presents."