At 09:12 AM 4/20/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>We've come across this "feature" on several pianos. (And not just grands.)
>Most recently we found it on one of two Knabe 7' 8" (or something) grands we
>did back to back. They were built about two years apart. The first (and
>oldest) had an open-faced pinblock and normal nosebolts. The second had a
>closed in pinblock (obviously a rather crude modification of the original
>plate pattern) and two nosebolts with nowhere to go -- the location of the
>bellybraces had changed. Presumably a running design change in which plates
>intended for an earlier design were being used up.
>
>I have also encountered this feature in pianos that had been modified at the
>factory for various reproducer mechanisms. During the modification various
>bellybraces are either cut out or left out.
>
>Del
Del, Ron, Arthur,
I'm beginning to think it must have been an incomplete modification, or
one "gone bad". The Slot through the keybed is just in the wrong place.
I've done Ampicos and Duoarts. This just isn't tracking. The beams are
missing, and the front (knee) half of the big lyre log mounted to the
bottom of the keybed is missing, but nothing else points to player. It
musta been SOMEthin', but who knows what. The wood modifications are
somewhat butchered, but the dummy screws are nicely machine threaded and
plated. Oh well. Wasn't so much of a puzzler as just an observation. Seems
like no matter how many of these things we see, we'll still get a surprise
now and then. Cool.
Oh... and Ron.... I'll check that serial # maņana.
Later,
Guy
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