The Faventia barrel piano (Part 1)

A few years ago (like 10) I purchased a Faventia Barrel Piano at a shop in Hillsboro NH. This piano was made in Spain around 1955 and was sold to tourist (it was cheaply built). Sears also sold the same piano with a cart and a stuffed donkey. You can turn the crank on the front of the piano and it plays a song, just like a music box. This piano has another crank on the side to change the tune. I think it has 6 songs on the barrel.

When I got the piano, I tuned it and played the songs. After about 5 minutes it was out of tune, and all I could get out of it was noise. After some Internet research I found that this piano is noted for not staying in tune. A little more research showed the best fix for this problem was to replace the wooden block that holds the tuning pins. I found a guy 'Al' on the Internet that had done this repair, and he was willing to help me make the repair. So after storing the broken piano for 10 years, I have started to repair it.

The first step was to take the piano apart, remove the strings and remove tuning pins.



The next step was to remove the old wood that held the tuning pins (it's called a pin block).

I replaced the old pin block with a brand new pin block, that was a laminated maple block, that was 1/2 inch thicker that the old pin block.

Using glue, clamps biscuits and screws I attached the new pin block to the piano.

Al is sending me new strings, and tuning pins. When these come in I should be able to get music out of the piano.