[pianotech] Kimball consolette

[Ron Nossaman]

It's all your fault. I hadn't seen one of these for over a 
year, and the minute someone mentions them on the list, WHAM! 
After the semitone pitch raise, which seems to be pretty much 
standard, I pulled the action to de-flop the flanges and see 
if I could get most of the hammers to hit most of the strings. 
So I've gotta ask, why are these things like this, and why 
were they built like this year after year after year? It's 
like the hammer flange screw holes aren't deep enough. The 
wippen flange screws tightened like real action screws on 
wooden flanges. Turned about 45°, and I could feel wood 
compressing as they snugged down. The hammer flanges are 
something else. Once you manage to get past the jack and 
actually engage the screw head with the driver, it takes a lot 
of pressure to keep the blade in the slot, and a lot of torque 
to turn the screw. I couldn't feel that some of the screws had 
even moved, but the flange quit flopping around - mostly. Many 
moons ago, I used to do floor and after delivery tuning for a 
dealer that sold both Kimball and Baldwin. Every tuning for as 
long as I tuned all of the Kimballs and most of the Baldwins, 
started with spacing hammers. I don't see many of these pianos 
today, but I can't say I miss them. I sometimes wonder where 
they went though.


While the action was out, I measured the hammer return spring. 
0.020" diameter.
Ron N