Celeste Parts? Is it worth it?

[David Porritt]

Robert:

We have an old Jenco celeste here also that sounds like the same model.
I've "fixed" things on it in the past but it's in terrible shape.  I've
asked and new ones are very expensive.  I've not done much on it since my
budget for pianos is too small to try to include celestes.

I wish you luck.

dave


Robert Goodale wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> I have an old Celeste here at the U. that needs either some serious
> surgery or a big fire.  (Jen-co #6550117, no model number mentioned).
> The thing was probably built in the 1950s and looks like it has seen a
> few wars. Anyway, the keyboard is pretty funky.  The keys are made in
> two pieces rather than one piece of wood, the head being a small
> seperate block of wood.  The whole thing is held together by the plastic
> keytop that is molded completely around the key.  Kind of like molded
> keytops with fronts, except also down the sides.  I think Kimball, in
> all it's glory, made some keytops similar to this. The plastic is
> cracking, and thus the keys are breaking in two.  It therefore probably
> needs a whole new keyboard made.  Based on it's design it doesn't look
> like something that was ever intended to be "repaired".
>
> Many internal parts are made from bakelite, specifically the hammer
> heads and a double hinged pivot piece that is at the base of each
> hammer, (sort of like an upright hammer butt). The damper heads are also
> made from bakelite.  The bakelight appears to be in the beginning stages
> of deteriorating, I.E. getting brittle and flaking.  For those of you
> who are not familiar, bakelite was a product that was widely used in the
> pre-plastic era which could be molded simuliarly to plastic.  It was not
> flexible like plastic, but it worked for many applications.
>
> I've started working on it doing what I can, but I think at best it will
> end up being patch work.  So, does anyone have experience with these
> things who would like to share? Does this sound like something worth
> investing in?  I suspect it is not.  Where would one search for parts on
> these things?  About how much would one of these cost new? (say, a basic
> medium quality instrument).
>
> thanks,
>
> Rob Goodale, RPT



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David M. Porritt, RPT
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas
mailto:dporritt@swbell.net
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