Bell Pianos

[John Musselwhite]

In an earlier article I mentioned the "Bell" upright piano, originally a
well-made and innovative piano manufactured by the Bell Piano and Organ Co.
in Guelph, Ontario Canada. As I have little to do on this winter day (HAH!)
I thought I'd write a little about some of the more unusual things I like
about them. Most American techs will probably never see one, but hopefully
may get the chance some day. BTW, the "Organs" they made were harmoniums
(pump organs) and many handsome (in some opinions), highly-carved and fairly
complex examples can be seen in Canada and possibly the northern U.S..

Now... back to our action-packed feature!   <g>

Although the name became merely a stencil in its latter days, Many original
Bell uprights had some wonderful features. Besides being quite solid and
generally well built as far as the structure and tonal elements go, many
featured the "Illimitable Repeating Action". This "innovation" (remember
this was back at the turn of the century until the earlie thirties)
consisted of a tiny extra spring connected via a silk loop which ensured the
jack would return to its position under the butt immediately. When properly
(or even reasonably) regulated, releasing the key slightly brought the jack
home and ready to fire again just like a grand (sound familiar?). Many of
the old (75 yrs) Bells I look after still have the springs and loops intact
and they still play like a dream! Servicing them is a bit more difficult
because of the loops and if they or the springs break it's a pain, but the
results are well worth it.

Another feature found on many of them was a "lost motion compensator", an
additional steel bar like a damper rod which raised the wippen tails as the
hammer rail was lifted. The keys were weighted slightly towards the front,
so the keys would follow the wippens and butts as the soft pedal was
pressed.  This eliminated any problems with sloppyness when using the soft
pedal at any level and despite the change in the dip it was extremely effective.

One Bell I look after has four pedals: sustain, soft, mandolin and
"mother-saver" the traditional felt hammer barrier often seen on Asian
pianos. Both of these can lock into notches cast in the fancy plate over the
pedals. This piano also had a lever beside the left cheek-block which moved
a felt-covered wooden bar in front of the hammer-shanks so all you heard
were light clicks. Despite being almost totally worn-out it's still a
fascinating piano and will be an excellent candidate for restoration some day.

Another rather interesting Bell I look after is a "counterfeit Steinway".
They exist just as fake Rolex watches or fake designer clothing do, although
not on that scale. All references to "Bell" had been removed from the plate
and action and "STEINWAY - GERMANY in raised letters (plastic and epoxyed
on) have been put on the plate above the tuning pins with the same thing
Lettra-setted on the fallboard. The two things they didn't remove were the
cast-in triangle at the bass break that says "Illimitable Repeating Action"
and the serial number, which if were a genuine Steinway would have been a
rosewood 8'5 Style 4 "Fancy Grand" built in 1873. It does however,
correspond precisely with one of the last Bell uprights to be built before
the First World War, a fact born out by the case style. Unfortunately, this
instrument was "refinished" in the seventies with a thick polyester-like
clear finish and they didn't take any of the case parts off before they
sprayed it! The owner doesn't want it taken apart under any conditions,
which means it gets tuned and that's it.

Back to the I. R.Action and the L.M.C...

The Illimitable Repeating Action and the Lost Motion Compensator were
_excellent_ innovations IMO. While the Fandrich makes a good attempt at the
former neither should really be all that expensive to design into new
verticals, especially with the competition from electronics we're seeing
these days. The patents must have run out long ago on both designs but they
should still be registered.

Did any other manufacturers use these inventions? Is anyone (other than
Canadian techs) familiar with them?

Have a good day, everyone, and thanks for your patience with yet another
long message from me!

                        John





John Musselwhite, RPT
Calgary, Alberta Canada
musselj@cadvision.com