Help - How to Get the Hammers Out of an Old Erard Piano?

Skip to around 5:15 for the piano stuff.

Hi guys. Having real trouble figuring out how to get the hammers out of this Parisian Erard. Instead of screws behind the jack to loosen the hammers, the screws seem to be holding on a brass plate... same on the back above the damper spoons, which in this case are thick wooden fingers, making it impossible to get a screwdriver in there. What is this madness? Although, the way it's built, I guess they expected it to last forever. It's extremely sturdy. 

Any advice much appreciated.

Reconnecting with Alex!

Driving around Kigali getting piano stuff done. Dropping in on an old friend from the early days of the Kigali Keys project!

Piano Update

 

Long overdue piano update from Rwanda.

Tuning at the Memorial Centre

Tuning a Petrof Czech upright at Kigali Genocide Memorial in Gisozi today for Masharika. A play about survivors' experiences as part of Ubumuntu Arts Festival.

Getting Rid of Mould in a Piano

One of our family pianos has a white mould issue, so I'm taking it apart, cleaning it up and spraying it with a liberal amount of mould killer. 

This is the same piano a couple of months later...

Found Clothes Moths in a Piano!

Doing a little piano repair in the UK at the moment and came across the craziest thing!

Restoring a Player Piano Playlist

Hi guys. Here's the full lowdown on the restoration project so far. We'll add more to this if the project goes any further. In video one we're putting on the new strings, in video two the piano's owner takes us through restoring the bellows and mechanism, and in the final one there's some unhappy tuning news.