Knabe Grand

[Robin Hufford]

Hello Terry,
     I  rebuilt one of  these pianos some years ago, perhaps 12 or 15 so I must rely on memory for the details and, subsequent, to that several other Knabe grands of a little bit later period.  This particular piano was an exceedingly good sounding piano, and with this one the original board was repaired.  It had the kind of characteristic, rich, beautiful sound, associated with pianos that have tenor bridges, whether upright or grand.     The pin block on the one I rebuilt was a double flanged one, as open faced blocks are, or should be,  in order to resist the moment applied to them by the strings which tries to make the
block rotate upward. The doweling and gluing to the stretcher and case are part and parcel of the attempt to deal with this moment, among other forces, and are integral to the success of the system.  This piano was built, if memory serves, in 1910.
     In the piano I refer to, probably very similar to yours, the pinblock was dowelled and glued to the stretcher and joined  into the case at the each end of the block as mentioned above.  It was cut out and another, after fitting of course, was glued and dowelled to the case and stretcher.  This is not particularly hard to accomplish correctly, as with care as it is readily evident what has to be done:  that is to maintain a predetermined location in the space of the case itself which is referenced off the plate and stretcher location.  This is all important, of course, and the plate must be correctly registered to the
board and bridges.  There were no acoustic dowels in the board but rather a shelf which supported the plate which made lowereing the plate a little more difficult than with dowels.  This shelf is typical of Knabe at the early part of the century.

The piano had the characteristic Knabe grain orientation in the treble bridge cap which extended through the top two sections.  As I am sure you will see, these caps crack across the width of the cap or bridge itself, rather than along the line of the pins as is the case with the more conventional cap; this necessitated recapping the bridge.  The remainder of the long bridge and the tenor bridge were uncapped and unlaminated.  I think this was the case with the bass bridge itself which, I am reasonably sure was uncantilevered.
     The piano definitely had a tunable front duplex system which was accomplished with large, movable,  roughly triangular blocks that supported four or five unison at a time.  I don't recall whether there was a rear duplex or not, although I am inclined to think there wasn't.
     The lid on Knabes from this period is made up from boards layed up transversely to the case, rather than front to back as is the case with the lids of  many other companies.  They tend to begin to separate, or actually, break, requiring repair.  This can be a far amount of extra work if there is substantial breaking apart of the lid, which is very common on Knabes from this period, as the break will be under three layers of veneer which are cross banded and frequently coming loose in places along the separations.
     The key buttons were replaced and an insert was installed in the balance rail hole.  In my experience the Knabe keysticks and keybuttons are not particlarly good although I have seen others of this company that did not require quite this much work.  The rails were retained but the action parts replaced.  Also, the back action was repaired, although little was needed here, and retained.
     An interesting problem was encountered during replacement of the legs which were heavily damaged.  They were attached to the underside of the case by two plates for each leg, another indication of the great care that went into Knabe and other pianos from this period.  The plates were retained and fitted into the new legs through a careful indexing system which was devised and suggested to me by  a retired printer who participated and assisted in the rebuilding of the piano.
     The piano lacked a fallboard which required a new one to be made. A pattern was made through successive fittings and trials which was then provided to a pattern shop that then made up the fallboard.  Subsequently, it was then veneered and finished along with the rest of the piano.
     All in all, the piano was an exceedingly nice instrument after rebuilding which received much favorable commentary as to its sound, which was precisely what I had expected and predicted, as, again,  it had the typical highly favored sound of the pianos with the tenor bridges.  The characteristic transition problems associated with this design, which, at least in my opinion,  are frequently exacerbated by the use of heavy, hard hammers, maple or hornbeam moldings and large, thick shanks,  were relatively minor and, certainly, not as pronounced as is generally encountered on the similarly designed Steinway A, its various
knock-offs, or the M&H AA.
Regards, Robin Hufford

Farrell wrote:

> Just thought I would share my latest acquisition of sorts. I helped one of my clients purchase a 1902 Knabe 6' 4" grand for full rebuild - soundboard, etc. It was delivered to my shop today. This is a very impressive piano. Open pinblock (glued to stretcher). Three bridges - nine wound tricords on the tenor/transition bridge. And the rim - the rim - a full 2-7/8 inches of 14 ply ash. Not a trace of delamination. Truly massive. Piano appears to have had a kind first 100 years. Five frame members under board. Won't get to this one for a while, but am very much looking forward to it! They sure built those pianos back then.
>
> Del had shared a bit of advice to me regarding selection of this piano. Thanks Del. It looks like a real winner.
>
> Terry Farrell
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