Zorba's "Secret" Piano Page
Hobart M. Cable logo from a period brochure.
The Pie-Anna!
I was a musician long before I was a dancer - I started with piano lessons as a small
child, and graduated to the French Horn which I played for about 25 years. Now I
play zills!
But the love of the piano never entirely went away, and started growing some years
ago. With my wife playing classical guitar, she encouraged me to acquire a piano.
This is the result - an ancient upright (ex-)player piano built in 1918 by the Hobart
M. Cable Piano Company. We literally rescued it from the sledge hammer, and the best
part of it was that it was free! This piano was called a "Style H".
I'm a romantic at heart. If this instrument could talk! It was six years old when my
father was born, twelve when my mother was born, eighteen when the Queen Mary was
launched. It was playing music throughout most of the twentieth century and the
history that shaped our world today. The crash of '29, the wreck of the Hindenburg,
the construction of the High School I attended (1920), the Apollo Moon landings, Pearl Harbor,
the 60's, 9/11, the first days of radio and TV, etc., etc. Awesome...
There were a number of now defunct piano builders with the name "Cable" appearing in the
name. The first was the Cable Piano Company was started by Herman D. Cable in 1880 when he assumed
control of the Conover Piano company. The Cable Piano Company built pianos with several different
brand names (Including Cable, Conover, Kingsbury and Wellington).
Herman D. Cable was joined by his two brothers, who learned their trade at The Cable company, then
went on to establish piano companies of their own after Herman passed on in 1899. These companies
were Hobart M. Cable, Fayette S. Cable and Cable Nelson. Cable Nelson was the result of a
merger between Fayette S. Cable and the Nelson Piano Company. Hobart M. Cable founded his company
in 1900, and it ceased operations in 1965. The Hobart M. Cable name has recently (2005) been
revived by a Chinese piano conglomerate.
There was also a "Cable & Sons" piano company in Albany, NY which apparently had no
relation/connection with the other companies Cable.
Getting it home required the hire of a professional piano mover. Once the mover, his assistant,
and the piano arrived at our home; the fun began! It was hauled in a low-bed covered trailer.
It could not be brought in the front door, due to a sharp turn at the top of the stairs. The
stairs were removed, and the trailer was backed up to the front door with some difficulty with
the idea of ramping the instrument into the house. By the time the trailer was aligned with
the door, it was too close making the ramp too steep; moving the trailer away ruined the alignment,
making this option unworkable.
So the piano was wheeled around to the back door, over the lawn, on successive plywood strips, walked up
the the back stairs, and into the house. But it had to be turned on end before being brought into
the house in order to negotiate a turn in the hallway! Aside from almost dumping the piano while
transferring it from the lawn to the sidewalk at the bottom of the stairs, it went smoothly; despite
the mover grumbling about "you didn't tell me it was a solid oak player!". Hmmm. It isn't solid oak...
Once it was finally in place, I opened it and cleaned it out and inspected it to see
what all was the matter with it. It turned out to be in far better shape than I
had dared hope. One loose hammer, one loose jack (an action part), severe need of
tuning, several keytops need replacement, and one string has been missing for decades!
The hammers need voicing and things need adjusting, but its all there and in
remarkable shape.
Despite it being out of tune and needing voicing, it has a sweet sound. The guy who
gave it to us told us that the player mechanism was "around here somewhere". Thank
Goddess he didn't find it - those morphodite contraptions only worked by the grace
of {insert your favorite deity here} when new, and they don't age well! If I really
want it to be a player again, I'll get one of those modern computerized retrofit kits
that works with solenoids and microprocessors - something I can understand! Frankly,
I'd rather play it myself...
Thus, this little page which will hopefully tell its story - and the only section
of this site that doesn't have anything to do with Belly Dance! I'll add pictures
as work progresses.
NOTE: Most of the earlier pictures were taken with a "Jam-C@m", and are of sub-optimal
quality. Later pictures were taken with an Olympus digicam and are of far better quality. As
the Jam-C@m pix are now historical, they cannot be replaced and must suffice...
The piano's story has gotten large enough to where the sequential access is sub-optimal
for someone wanting to revisit and just see the updates. Therefore, you can access each
separate day's activities from here, or use the sequential "more" buttons at the bottom
of each page to see it all.
Click on any
to return to this index page (and replay the annoying piano "crash"!). Enjoy!
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These pages are presented as a record of what was done to this particular piano. They
are NOT represented as the correct way to work on one. Indeed, some things had to be
re-done, or were done backwards from recommended procedures. It was, and continues to
be, a learning experience for the author! Work on your own piano at your own risk!
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29 June 2005 Introducing the instrument and some cleaning.
3 July 2005 Regluing ivories and jack bracket repair.
4 July 2005 Hammer butt center pin re-insertion.
9 July 2005 Cabinet cleaning and keybed felt replacement.
10-11 July 2005 More ivory regluing and pedal polishing.
24 July 2005 eBay toolkit, installing new string, practice mute,
brightening bass strings, etc.
30 July 2005 Nameboard felt, new rubber bumpers, more practice mute work.
31 July 2005 Pedal felt.
11 August 2005 Cleaning & polishing ivories.
21 August & 11 September 2005 New bass string and back rail felt.
9 October 2005 Brightening bass strings - the right way, stringing braid.
23 October 2005 Bridle strap replacement. part I.
18 November 2005 Bridle strap replacement. part II.
25 January 2006 Tuned at last! Possible pinblock problems.
12 February 2006 Building an action jig.
2 March 2006 Re-lacquering the sharps.
26 July 2006 The Tuner Returns!
17 August 2006 Fallboard hinge replacement.
26 August 2006 New lid prop sticks and tools for re-bushing.
30 September 2006 Key re-bushing begins - removing old felts.
8 October 2006 Ivory Bleaching.
14 October 2006 De-bushing complete. An update.
13 November 2006 Re-bushing half done. Miscellaneous updates.
19 November 2006 Re-bushing complete.
7 February 2007 Action Regulation.
4 April 2007, Part 1 Prepping for Damper Replacement.
4 April 2007, Part 2 Damper Replacement.
4 April 2007, Part 3 Treble Stringing Braid Replacement.
8 April 2007 Damper Alignment.
23 June 2007 Damper Pre-Regulation.
16 July 2007 Tuning and Over-Damper Retrofit.
23 July 2007 PAM Modification.
3 September 2007 Finish Rejuvenation.
1 January 2008 90th Birthday Present!
28 March 2008 page 1, Lacquer Application.
28 March 2008 page 2, Miscellaneous Repairs.
Piano Resources The "FaziSteinDorfer" and the Belly Dancer!
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