gulbransen console

[Jim Coleman, Sr.]

Hi Ron:

Good to see you back in the land of the living.

One must always do the damper alignment with the damper rod in place so
that you know that all the dampers are lifting evenly. The damper wire
bending is most easily done before the hammers and shanks go in. Of course
one must check end samples of the hammer stroke and damper lift timing
to avoid unnecessarily large adjustments of the damper spoons later. 
What I like to do after all the hammers are glued in is to use a caul 
which is of rectangular shape 5/8" by 11/16" by the length of the shortest
distance between action brackets. This caul can be wedged in between the 
hammers and the strings at the strike point so that as one raised a wippen
by its backcheck, one can see if the damper is just barely tickled by the
spoon as the hammer hits the 11/16" spacer caul.

Once one has learned how to fit the spoon regulator tool to the spoons (this
is the hard part) one canadjust the spoons to pick up earlier or later as
the test indicates by merely bending the spoon our farther to the back to
pick up earlier, or by bending the spoon closer to the wippen rail to make
the damper lift later.

There is another method which has been written on in detail which you can
find in the archives if finding the spoons with the tool is problematical.
This involves setting spoons at the beginning and ending of each section
in the piano and then, on the bench, aligning the rest to the samples.

Good luck.

Jim Coleman, Sr.

PS I heard that you were out of the business for a while. I hope you 
didn't let your membership lapse.


On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, Ron & Lorene Shiflet wrote:

> Dear list,
>     A few years back, I purchased a Gulbransen console.  It was old and =
> had plastics all through the action.  The plastics were shattering and I =
> replaced most of the parts with used wooden ones.  Then I sold the =
> piano.  The wooden parts weren't real straight and I ran into lots of =
> sticky key issues.  Fortunately, the owner was real understanding and I =
> took the piano back for repair and gave them a loaner.  Most of the =
> piano has a new action with Kawai ABS parts.  The are straight, non =
> sticky and wonderful.  With a project of this size there are always =
> other issues and I have worked most of them out but there are a few =
> still left to resolve. =20
>     As of today the following modifications have been made. =20
>   a.. Hammer butts are now Kawai ABS, pre sprung.  Springs have been =
> removed from rail.=20
>   b.. New wippens.  Kawai ABS.  Jacks were too long and so were replaced =
> with the correct shorter jacks.  All other things about the wippens are =
> a good fit.=20
>   c.. Keys were front heavy and always fell forward.  Keys have been =
> weighted and now fall in the back. =20
>     I then reassembled it in the following order. =20
>   a.. I installed the dampers first and did a really good job there.=20
>   b.. Then I put in the hammers and aligned them.=20
>   c.. Added the wippens, aligned them.  =20
>   d.. Added the keys, aligned them.  =20
>   e.. Performed basic regulation getting hammer distance, key height, =
> letoff, spoons, etc.  ( all of this was done WITHOUT the damper pedal =
> rod in place)
>     The piano plays just fine until I use the sustain pedal.  When I =
> push the sustain pedal, the hammers fall forward just like a soft pedal =
> will move the hammers forward.  The rod is NOT connected to the wrong =
> place. =20
>     My gut instinct tells me to redo the spoons with the damper rod in =
> place.  Any suggestions.
> =20
> Ron Shiflet
> rshiflet@eaznet.com
> 
>