Knabe grand reputation

[Ray T. Bentley]

THE piano that has caused me the most grief in my 23 years as a piano
technician is a Knabe built about 1975.  At every tuning there are hammers
out of alignment rubbing on each other, among other maladies.  Often extra
calls were made in between tunings, too.  I think the hammer shanks were
installed randomly with no attention paid to the direction of the grain!
Almost anything you can think of has been wrong with this piano from the
beginning.  Poor workmanship throughout!  To make it worse, it is owned by
an elderly lady who bought it as her "dream" piano as she neared retirement!
She finally gave it to her daughter after her sister died and left her a
Steinway "O" built about 1914!  At last she has a fine instrument.

Ray T. Bentley, RPT
Alton, IL

----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: Knabe grand reputation


> >I was not aware Knabe had such a good reputation.  Every one I have ever
seen
> >from this era ends up to be a very average-sounding  piano.  All other
> >features are also very average.  I have never seen one that excited me
beyond
> >a ho-hum.
> >
> >Bob Bergantino, RPT
>
>
> The wippens are pretty weird, and bridge cap grain direction is definitely
> aberrant, but they're first rate foundations for rebuilding if you don't
> try to reproduce what was there.
>
> Ron N