Kimball Pianos (request)

[Eugene I. Roe RPT]

by way of kam544@ionet.net (Keith A. McGavern) wrote:

> Pianotech list,
>
> This post below came to me today from Pat Lynch.  I am submitting it
> to you
> for your consideration.  I have made no promises to Ms. Lynch that
> replies
> would be forthcoming.
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
> Keith A. McGavern
> kam544@ionet.net
> Registered Piano Technician
> Oklahoma Chapter 731
> Piano Technicians Guild
> Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA
>
> =================================
> Dear Mr. McGavern
>
> While browsing through the piano page archives I noticed a few
> postings with
> Kimball pianos as their main subject. Must have been around the time
> Kimball
> decided to stop manufacturing pianos. I pulled your name because you
>
> mentioned you have worked on at least 200 Kimball pianos.
>
>  I have a 1935 Kimball grand piano and was wondering if it would be
> worth
> rebuilding. The things said about the todays Kimball company were
> not very
> encouraging, but I wonder if you have had experience working on the
> older
> pianos made in the 1930's when the pianos were still manufactured in
> the
> Chicago plant by the original family. If you know of any other
> technicians
> that have worked on older Kimballs (especially of that time period)
> I would
> appreciate you passing this request along.
>
> Thank you
> Pat Lynch
> ==============================

 I rebuilt a 1938 kimball very small grand(58") 2 years ago for a
customer. This was a pretty bad sounding instrument which had a terrible
bass and wornout hammers so I could not tell much about the treble tone
but the board had crown and bearing and good sustain. It got a new
pinblock ,scale (Joslyn software) and new Nippon felt hammers. This
piano sounds very respectful and is currently being used in a small
recording studio. On tape one could not possibly guess what it really
is!
I would think that a 1935 model might be OK to work on if the board is
sound.
Gene Roe RPT