Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I ----- Original Message ----- From: Joseph Garrett To: Terry Farrell Sent: 11/16/2010 4:32:10 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] 1895 Kimball Terry see below. <G> Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Farrell To: joegarrett at earthlink.net;pianotech at ptg.org Sent: 11/16/2010 3:42:17 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] 1895 Kimball On Nov 16, 2010, at 11:37 AM, Joseph Garrett wrote: Looked at a 1895 Kimball upright today. Owner is entertaining having the bass strings replaced, there are very tubby. The piano also has a Honky Tonk muffler, almost looks like a standard muffler, felt is slit and brass tabs mounted on the ends. Was this made like this or altered at some point in it's life. It was altered How do you know that Joe? I've seen quite a few Honky Tonk rails that at least appear to be original. I looked carefully at the photo and ascertained that. I've worked on a lot of Kimball uprights, just like that and there were two clues: 1. the "strips" were cut unevenly on a standard "Soft Pedal" of that manufacture. 2. The "clips" that were attached to the strips were not even invented or manufactured when that piano was made. Just my take on it.<G> My concern is the bass bridge has some splitting around the pins and it's apron has 3 cracks in it. If they decided to restring, the bass bridge arpon would have to be repaired, after removing the bridge, can it simply be glued back together? white glue or epoxy? also I'd repair the splits along the bridge pins at that time. Lots of info posted of late on that. Hmmmm?Bass bridge can and should be repaired IN the piano. With Epoxies: Two Tone Clear and Steel Epoxies; each for specific jobs. I was trying to decide how to respond to Ron Nossaman's "Imagine" post regarding repairing a split bridge VS replacing. It seems to me there is a time & place for most everything. And IMHO, there are very appropriate applications for repairing a bridge with epoxy. However, in a case like this where the piano owner has decided to replace an entire set of bass strings - IMHO, if the piano is worth a new set of strings, it is worth a new bridge cap and/or and new bridge and/or a new apron (ouch! did I say that?), or better yet, move the bridge forward and eliminate the apron (hey, we're rescaling anyway.....). Whereas I agree that the potential exists that a good repair can be made with epoxy (really need to see pics), why would you say that the bass bridge SHOULD be repaired with epoxy? I did not say that the piano "must/should" be repaired with epoxy. What I said was it should be repaired IN the piano. That would be the simplest and best repair for the extent of the damage. Is it worth a new set of Bass Strings? Probably. Is it better to repace ALL of the strings? Yes! Is it practical? Maybe. It's what I do and I'd have to see the whole piano to make that determination. Also, the person asking is probably not very experienced, so this would be a place to start , for him, in getting the necessary experience. As opposed to getting in way over his head. Just because the bass strings are being rescaled to compensate for the change in wrap materials, does not, IMHO, necessitate the need to get totally into redesigning and remanufacturing! Really Terry, you must be yanking my chain to suggest that this newbie attempt something that complex! I am smiling at the thought thouigh.<G It looks to me that it has steel wound bass strings. Is there a vendor that makes these? or would replacing with brass wound strings change the sound. They optained this piano because of the Honky Tonk feature. What supplier offers steel wound strings? None! (that I know of). Because the piano has Steel wound strings, you will need to have the Bass scale recalulated to compensate for the difference in mass of the steel to copper. If you do not, you will have a disparity in tension, (higher) and an excessively bright bass, (due to the excessive tension). I advise that you do the recalculating yourself or have a good scaler do it. Glad to see we agree on some things!!! ;-) WE agree on a whole lot of things, except advising newbies, I suspect.<G> Best Retards, JOE Terry Farrell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101116/01053d19/attachment.htm>
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