Lindner/Rippen pianos

[Willem Blees]

I never knew the history of the piano, so thanks, Bruce, for the lesson.

Shortly after we moved to the US in 1956, my dad opened a pianos store. He tried to sell Rippon pianos. He sold maybe a dozen. (These were the ones made in Holland.)  I do remember that the case designs were very unusual. 

One problem he did have, as I recall, was damage to the crates and the pianos. He claimed it was the dock workers in Chicago who, according to him, didn't like anything made overseas. 


Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Honolulu, HI
Author of 
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com


 
On Mar 22, 2008, at 6:47 AM, justpianos at our.net.au wrote: 
 
> Holly, 
> Recently I was approached by a customer wanting a quote on repairing a 
> Lindner piano. She told me that other tuners had refused to look at > the 
> piano, so I made some investigations, to see what I could do. > Here’s what 
> I found. 
> The Lindner piano was a clever design that fell foul of poor > materials. 
> The Rippen company originated in The Hague, west of Holland, where > they 
> built pianos the classical way. After World War II the company > moved to 
> Ede. They bought an old factory hall, extended it and started building 
> pianos in a new way. In those post-war years there was a huge > demand for 
> pianos, but most people did not have much to spend. Rippen decided to 
> develop a "low cost" instrument, and they were successful. They > were also 
> assembling and selling the Thomas organ, which originated in the USA. 
> During the 1960s Ireland had lots of unemployed, and the Irish > government 
> was looking for investments in order to create more jobs. They > published a 
> bill in which they declared that in Shannon, near the local airport, 
> foreign companies could achieve quite substantial tax reductions, > if only 
> this would lead to a certain amount of local jobs. 
> Rippen was already selling pianos in the USA, using the Thomas organ 
> connection, but pianos being heavy, had to be shipped by boat, > which made 
> it necessary to take care of sea-packaging, and so on. 
> They had a brain-storm: if they could make a lightweight piano they > could 
> ship it by air. And if they produced it at Shannon the investment > would be 
> low, and for a nice number of years the tax reductions would be 
> profitable. So they started the development of the "plastic piano". > They 
> used a frame of aluminium tubes welded together, and they replaced > as much 
> of the wooden parts as possible by plastic, ending up with an > instrument 
> of only 75 kilos. Since the keyboard could be turned downwards > inside the 
> chest they were able to ship two pianos almost in the space > normally used 
> by one. They could then send them everywhere, as long as an > airplane could 
> land. 
> Only the plastic parts were produced at Shannon, normal parts were 
> purchased from external suppliers, and Renner even developed a special 
> action mechanism. The main factory at Ede in the Netherlands > supplied some 
> parts as well. 
> You might be interested to know that Rippen, in their post-war models, 
> never did use a "rast" (those posts of 4 x 4 inches). They glued and 
> screwed the pinblock onto the plate, so all the strength had to > come from 
> the cast iron frame. 
> The sound boards of all Rippen/Lindner pianos were made out of three 
> layers, cross-glued: a triplex. One true advantage: it could not > crack, 
> although these Lindner models had quite limited tonal qualities. 
> It is not know how many instruments were produced at Shannon. In > Ede the 
> maximum output was 18 instruments per day, 5 days a week. 
> Rippen went broke in the year 1987. 
> 
> Generally Lindner pianos are worthless now as most of the action is > made 
> of plastic and practically impossible to repair when it goes wrong. > Most 
> Lindners are at an age where they are rapidly disintegrating, hence 
> utterly worthless as a piano, although when they are working they > have a 
> reasonable touch. No replacement parts are available and most times > the 
> piano is not worth the trouble to repair. 
> Normally keyboard keys can be lifted out without any problem. The > plastic 
> keys of the Lindner snap in, and thus the keys cannot be removed by 
> pulling them away: they need to be unlocked. However, often these keys 
> will come out just by pulling, but the clips will easily break. 
> Provided the keys are still whole you've got a chance of repairs. But 
> whatever you do, don't try to glue the plastic keys - it simply won't 
> take. Super glue, epoxy, Airfix - none of it works. I'm sure there's a 
> clever plastic welding glue or system that might work - but the first 
> question would have to be WHY! You can actually borrow the parts > you need 
> to get the middle going from the extreme ends. What's the old saying, 
> "nobody plays these notes anyway"? 
> You may need a mixture of hammer flanges (they are a modular snap > in job 
> that often doesn't snap anymore) and the spring steel balance pin 
> thingees. All of these bits are interchangeable (which is part of the 
> basically clever idea behind the poor execution*). 
> Do the repairs first – there is a chance that while you're tuning more 
> bits will break - this is the only benefit of this whole thing - > you won't 
> have nearly as much of the piano to tune once you're done. Or sell > it to 
> another owner of one of these gems so that they have spares - it's > a bit 
> like owning an old Citroen/Peugeot/Morris/Austin – you never own > one - you 
> need at least three to keep one on the road! The broken key clips > seem a 
> common problem. 
> It is interesting that the front key dip is adjustable > individually, from 
> under the key bed. 
> Nobody seems to have invested in injection molding tools for 
> re-manufacturing the clips, but an easy and reliable way to repair > these 
> pianos is to weld the clips. The plastic of the clips seems to be > Nylon, 
> which gets weakened in the heat. Welding the clips with hot air is 
> feasible, but heating time, air flow profile and temperature > profile is 
> quite critical. Ordinary hot air blowers will not do the job. Use a > repair 
> station for soldering electronic surface mount devices, Weller (Model 
> WQB2000 finepitch/BGA repair) with a nozzle for SOP8. A simple > fixture 
> makes sure that the clip has the correct size to fit into the aluminum 
> rail. Take a minimum of 3 minutes to heat up, then apply a heat > peak to 
> both broken surfaces then press together -- done. 
> Heating the complete clip to slightly below the melting point seems > also 
> to change the Nylon molecular constitution, and the welded clip > appears 
> flexible as new. 
> Thanks to all who contributed, the WWWeb is a wonderful thing! 
> Bruce Browning – The Piano Tuner 
> 
> 
 

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