sparkletop suitcase restoration

[groover]

Hi guys,
I've just pulled out of the shed this old sparkletop i acquired years ago and have a few questions that i hope someone can help me with.
Firstly can anyone help me date it? It doesn't have the usual 4 digit stamp on the tone bar or pickup rail, just the little gold fender serial badge in the right hand corner. The serial number is: 73B1138. I can't seem to find any info on dating using the serial number.

Please post any links to youtube clips or forum topics that address restoring one of these pianos that you think might be useful. I've just finished my 81 stage, but this one is quite different with the damper arm setup etc.

I'll attach a few pics. I'm concerned that the piece of wood that the damper mechanisms are attached to might be warped. You can see in one pic where i've lined up a straight ruler with the top end damper line, and starts to curve from about the middle of the piano. Should this actually be dead straight or is it suppose to curve like this?

With this damper arm setup there doesn't seem to be any way of making adjustments if needed like with the aluminum damper combs. Maybe there doesn't need to be?

All the damper felts (as ragged and old as they are) seem to be chunky and all the same height. Would the replacement dampers from vintage vibe work for this piano? I only ask because i replaced them on my '81 and the felts are so different to these ones. They had varying heights too.

And the action feels very spongy, like maybe the pins are rubbing on the felts in the pin recesses of the keys. I'd expect over time the felts would wear and the keys  would get looser, not tighter around the pins. I'm not sure if this is whats causing the spongy feel, this is just my theory at the moment.

Any advice from anyone who's tackled one of these would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks guys

[The Real MC]

Outside storage is the worst place to keep these things. 

Exposure to outside humidity will guarantee that the wood components of the action will warp beyond repair. 

The moisture likely had worked into the felt bushings of the action which may have caused friction on the pins and make it feel spongy.

Rhodes recommended their hybrid plastic/wood hammer set as a replacement for the original in the sparkletops.  They are one of the few interchangeable parts.  My sparkletop had the hybrid plastic/wood hammer set installed when I bought it.  I'm not disappointed about missing original components as I don't have to worry about $$$ shaving of worn felt hammers.

Inspect the tines.  If they are rusty then they are toast.  The rust permeates the metal beneath the surface and there is no way to completely remove it.

[groover]

I got this piano from a guy who said it had been discarded and left out in the rain, so i always had concerns as to whether it's restorable or not..

I take it that bend in the piece of wood the dampers are attached to is not factory standard lol. It doesn't seem to hinder anything though. The hammers and dampers still line up with the tines good enough i think.

And yes there is rust on the tines, and i think about half the pickups are dead. Its got (mostly) the original square tone bars. How different do they sound to the newer style twisted tone bars. I was thinking of just getting a whole new set of the newer ones if theres not much difference in sound.

[Ben Bove]

Real MC is right on - the moisture will make the wood swell, and therefore may decrease the hole size for the guide pins in the keys.  This can be fixed with a easing the bushings with a tool, or crudely fixed by pulling to the left and pulling to the right as you push the key down, sort of crushing down the felt against the pins as a bushing easer.

If the tines are orange in color but not actually rusted where metal is displaced out of the tine, than they can still be good.  If they've rusted to the point of pitting like an orange peel, then as Real MC said they will begin to start breaking with regular playing.

It's difficult to date these pianos neither TurboJet nor Fender stamped them until later in 1969.  You can find dating through the preamp pots, but seeing the plastic hammer shafts on the teardrop hammers I would date it somewhere around 1967.

[The Real MC]

Its got (mostly) the original square tone bars. How different do they sound to the newer style twisted tone bars. I was thinking of just getting a whole new set of the newer ones if theres not much difference in sound.

I can tell you that they are not interchangeable with later resonators - I tried.  They will not fit on a later harp assembly.

Square resonators have a different tone from the flat/twisted ones.  The transient is also different.  When I bought my piano, a couple of the original Raymac tines had been replaced with later Torringtons.  I can't hear any difference between them.  The resonators contribute a lot to the tone.

Whether they sound better, this is a subjective view.  While I do like their tone of the square resonators, the pitch wavers in some of the tines in the bottom 1/3 of the piano.  The resonators are supposed to be tuned to the pitch of the tine for the vibrating reed assembly to operate, and the square resonators don't seem to be perfect in this regard.

[groover]

Thanks for that. I think you misunderstood me. I was thinking of replacing the older square ones with a new set of twisted ones onto the old board. I'm pretty sure they will fit as someone's already replaced a couple with the twisted newer ones. I can see that the old square ones might not fit on a newer board as the are longer in length. Is this what you meant?
If the resonators do make a big difference in tone then maybe i should just buy a set of tines without the tonebars and just replace them all. They look interchangable as far as i can tell.

What about the dampers? These ones are all big blocks and look to me like they're all the same height. And with the way the whole damper mechanism works it looks like they all pull away from the tines exactly the same distance with no possibility of adjustment (like being able to bend the aluminum damper arms of later models). I'm just wondering if the new damper replacements from VV will work properly because i think the last set i got contained felts of different heights for different sections. They might be fine, i guess if some are too tall i could cut them down myself..