Too Wide Wippens

[Delwin D Fandrich]

-----Original Message-----
From: VOCE88@AOL.COM <VOCE88@AOL.COM>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 5:43 PM
Subject: Too Wide Wippens


>Dear Folks,
>
>     Has anyone else found a lack of suppliers for Knabe, Chickering, and
>others with "slimmer than normal" action parts?
>
>     It seems nobody is stocking these parts over the past few months. What
>has been sent is about 1/32" too wide at the flange and the wippen. Any
help
>is very much appreciated!!
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Richard Galassini
>Cunningham Piano Co.
>Phila.,Pa.
>1 800 394 1117

-----------------------------------

Richard,

I think Wally Brooks may be selling parts that fit these pianos.  If memory
serves, I think they may be made by Abel.  Anyway, you might check with him.

This can be a real problem.  I remember working on a truck load of Wurlitzer
grand pianos in the 70's that had Renner actions that simply didn't work.
It wasn't the fault of the action really.  It's just that the parts were too
wide to fit the scale.

Wurlitzer was trying to re-enter the grand market and had resurrected one of
their old scales for the project.  I think what happened (based on
conversations I've had with folks in the old Wurlitzer company and my own
observation) was that they had used an existing plate from one of their old
designs as the pattern for the new plate.  The original scale and design was
fairly decent but with the shrinkage encountered in the plate casting
process it shortened up the strike line scale so much that only the very
narrowest of action parts would have fit.  At the time this would have been
Pratt-Read which was producing absolute garbage for quality.  Since
Wurlitzer wanted this to be somewhat more than an entry level piano they
opted to go with a Renner action.  Unfortunately, it seems that no one
bothered to check to see if this action would really fit.  Only one person
in the company at the time realized that there was a difference and they
were listening to him.  Anyway, the action simply didn't fit.  In the pianos
I worked on -- about two dozen of them -- many of the hammershanks were
actually touching each other through the first treble section and they were
much more than comfortably close through the upper tenor and the top treble
section.

The piano was only in production for a couple of years, as I recall.  This
is one reason why.  (There were others.)

The PS to this story is that when Baldwin took over the company there were
several of Baldwin's people who wanted to do the same thing all over again!
Mercifully, it didn't happen.

Regards,

Del