Knight piano/English plastic

[Kerry Cooper]

Tom,

The action you speak of is a Schwander action and these plastic parts were
used on all actions for many different manufacturers, even Beale in
Australia. We never saw a grey colour plastic, as ours were black and we
were told that they were graphic impregnated.

There has not been any deterioration of the plastic parts and these actions
are good to work on and rebuild. The company I worked for and did my
apprenticeship, W H Paling, was part of Music Houses of Australia, who owed
Beale, therefore I worked on many of these actions including Knight.

PS. I was taught that the now called practice pedal rail was the Celeste
Rail. Our English influence.

Regards

Kerry Cooper
Accredited Member APTTA.
Brisbane
Australia
----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 9:44 AM
Subject: Knight piano/English plastic


> List
>
> Today I tuned a Knight studio console piano.  This piano, manufactured in
> England in 1966, has many plastic parts.  Plastic hammer flanges, plastic
> damper dowels, and a one piece plastic jack/flange.  It doesn't look like
the
> kind of plastic used in American pianos in the 40s and 50s.  The plastic
is
> dark gray.  There have been no plastic parts broken so far.
>
> Is this plastic a cause for concern as it is in American pianos?
>
> When did the era of crumbly plastic piano parts end?
>
> Did the English piano manufacturers have a different, possibly more
durable
> kind of plastic than the Americans?
>
> I need to advise the client of the long-term viability of this piano.
Other
> than the plastic parts, this is quite a nice piano which a gorgeous tone
for
> an instrument its size.   A really full bass and absolutely false-beatless
> treble.
>
> Perhaps one of our English list members can advise me regarding this piano
> and its plastic content.
>
> Tom Sivak
>
> P.S.
>
> Interestingly, the piano has a mute pedal with a mute rail similar to
> Yamaha's, and stamped right on the rail are the words, "Remove the celeste
> with the wing nuts only." referring to two wing nuts which allow you to
> remove the rail without unscrewing it from the sides of the cabinet.
>
> I had never heard of a mute pedal being called a celeste.
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