A most unique action

[robert goodale]

Hi boys & Girls,

I had the pleasure, (or displeasure), of working on a VERY old
Kranich & Bach upright this afternoon.  I have really been
avoiding old pianos these days but I took this one with certain
understandings in advance on it's condition and what I would
charge to look at it.  Indeed it was a mess, I would say
1895-1900-ish, (I didn't look up the year).  At first glance it
is your typical old upright clunker, but a closer examination
noted a number of peculiarities.  Perhaps others on this list
have seen these but having serviced many hundreds of old uprights
this was a new one for me.

The scale was divided into three sections with three independent
bridges.  The bridges were unusually small.  The bass strings
were steel wound.  The tenor section had it's own pressure bar
and was considerably off set from the other strings.  What was
most interesting, however, was the action.  The hammers were very
small, (narrow), on very thin shanks.  The dampers were on steel
paddle type levers with flat wood heads.  The main action rail
consisted of thick and heavy solid brass and had double flanges
somewhat like the old Steinway upright double flanges.  The let
off rail looked almost identical to an old Steinway using a
square brass piece of tubing with a dowel through the center.
The hammer rail was framed inside a tray with a brass lifting
mechanism at the tenor break.  The keys had the old style rocker
type adjustments in place of capstans with medium length
stickers.  What came across as perhaps the most unusual feature
was the way that the action was mounted.  Rather than the typical
brackets and plate nose bolts, there were mountings cast directly
in the plate, a sort of wide "socket" in which the action plugged
into.  Long vertical screws tied it down through a clamp type
mechanism to lock it in place.  The plate alone suspended the
action in place.

Has anyone else on the list serviced one of these?  The customer
said they moved it from Tennessee so perhaps there are more in
that area of the country.  It looked like it would be an
interesting rebuilding project except for the fact that it would
doubtfully be worth the money.

Just wondering.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV