Kranich and Bach parts

[Mark Krieger]

Randy,

Thanks for your hints about getting K & B action parts. I was the second
person to ask..what a coincidence, all in the same week!

You are right about there being different reasons for doing something
other than torching...(which I did find a teeny bit amusing, and I
understand better after working on this K & B beasty). Here's the deal: I
am an amateur; the piano *is* a family heirloom, many members of my wife's
family learned on it. It is 100 years old and was very beautiful. I am
told it once sounded wonderful. It was disintegrating in Grandma's
basement with stacks of books stored on it.

Many keys did not play, the inside and out of the piano was a mess. I have
cleaned the old red mahogany veneer; it looks very very nice now. I fixed
the broken fallboard. I started needing about 10 wippens...all due to
broken and/or missing jacks. I found most and fit and glued them so that
they seem to work correctly now. With 4 non-working wippens to go, I
visited Macy of Beethoven in NYC. He has sold me 'old-style' Steinway
wippens (other things I needed too of course). They are not exactly right;
in fact what I've done is improvise with parts from the Steinways wippens
and much of the original wippens with missing/broken wood. This also seems
to work right. One obvious downside: A *lot* of labor. I now have put the
action back together after 100 years of grime cleaning and lots of glue
for the old keytops, etc. I have all keys 'working' and I am regulating.
It is coming togther really well.

One question: The old K & B has Cellulose keytops, which we all like the
look of, a nice light yellow patina. I opted not to replace with all new
plastic...BUT of course 4 keytops were missing. I have tried new plastic
on these 4, which I have 'moved' to the ends (they're too white), but I am
pretty compulsive and would love to find some old Cellulose light yellow
keytops or another suitable and better matching replacement, which Macy
did not have. What can I do? Anyone make a replacement? Anyone have some
old Cellulose lying around? Thanks.

Happy New Year to all.

Mark

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Mark Krieger
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