new Wm. Knabe from Samick

[Clyde Hollinger]

Randy and list,

I may have asked about the new Knabes when a customer of mine was considering
the purchase of a studio model WKV-118F, which they bought last year.  I had
looked at the piano at that time and considered it to be well built and a good
value for the money.

The customer took advantage of the free tuning(s) from the dealer, and I tuned
the piano for the first time in April this year.  Other than being pretty
wildly flat, it seemed fine to me.  I tuned it again last week.  On a fairly
hard blow, some of the hammers would block against the string, or if they
didn't, by putting a little more pressure on the key you could make it block.
On many keys the checking was very close, like maybe 1/4" or so.

I know regulation is not my forte because I do not do much of it, but my
perception was that there was too much key dip.  I have only a 3/8" block, and
on most of the piano the dip was an additional 1/16" or even more than that.
The real problem may be movement of the keybed with humidity, or maybe the
front rail punchings were too squishy and packed down too quickly.  In any
case, I decided to wait until the next tuning to see how it will be when the
humidity is lower, in November of December.  I doubt that a warranty will
cover this work.

Thoughts, anyone?  Other than this, I still think it is a beautiful vertical
piano.

Regards,
Clyde

ranjacob@umich.edu wrote:

> I'm not sure that it's OK to ask such a question on this list; if
> not, I gladly withdraw it.  But, I responded a year ago to a post
> that asked for people's experiences with new Knabes from Samick.
>
> I'd just managed to see one for a very short period of time.
> Probably a 5 foot 7 inch or smaller.  It seemed very solid, even,
> interesting and potentially even more interesting in tone, from
> the standpoint of possible variety of tone with different touch,
> and so forth.
>
> I didn't see any other responses on this list. I just had a
> chance to compare a new 5 foot 7 inch (WKG-57) and a new 6 foot
> 1 inch (WKG-61), Wm. Knabe, side by side, for a longer period of time. The
> salesperson said that, for the university sale that
> was the occasion, they were especially discounted in a benefit
> arrangement with the music school, and were being shown almost
> straight from the box, with minimum prep.  If this is true,
> the factory or pre-distribution prep seemed really quite good
> from the tonal standpoint.
>
> The 5'7" as "minimally prepped" was even better tonally than last
> year's: more varied, more open, perhaps even more "solid and even".
> The lowest 1/2 octave was (understandably) not quite as clear
> and non-inharmonic as the 6'1", but I'd reserve judgment until
> there was a new, very thorough tuning.
> The 6'1" (possibly partly because it seemed to have a back
> duplex that went lower in the treble) was just a little bright
> for my own preference in the example, otherwise at least as
> good. Both sustained adequately. The *non*-sale price (in upper
> Midwest) was $1,000 apart, in the higher part of the $25,000-
> 30,000 range.  At that rate, the choice between the two
> examples would have been hard.  How would I be sure that the
> brighter 6'1", although it certainly had a better lowest bass,
> could be voiced down in the way I wanted?  Would I want, instead,
> to go fairly soon to different hammers?
>
> These are my immediate reactions.  Tonally, very fine pianos;
> *different from*, not necessarily inferior to, better Baldwins
> or small Steinways of the last 40 years, from my recent
> hearing.  I'd like them to have a lower new price, of course.
> Oh, well...maybe the store would bargain?
>
> Any other experiences?
>
> Randy Jacob
> University of Michigan Library