Rippen Grand comments?

[William J Morton]

At 11:16 PM 12/6/2004 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>The museum where I work has just purchased one. I heared it is made from
>silumin, an alloy based on  aluminium but that is stronger than just
>aluminium. There are two parts, the case and the keybed which is screwed on
>the case.
>It is straight strung (strings running parallel) and that is a funny thing.
>I know several pianists who only want to play on older pianos because they
>have strings running parallel. Curious to see what they will think about
>this "verry modern" old style piano?
>What looks strange is de fact that the rim (or frame?) is only about 18 cm.
>thick and that the soundboard is flush with the underside of the frame.
>The one I worked on has a Renner action and has probably been build in 1959.
>The sound is not so impressive. I would say a little tiny but that is maybe
>because I had to file away deep grooves from the hammers. (before it sounded
>to dull) The sustain is ok. I suppose also that the fact there's no wooden
>rim around the board makes the sound less rich?
>What is the colour of your Rippen? The three I saw were all painted in a
>soft green colour.
>
>Greetings,
>Pierre Gevaert
>Museum of Instruments
>Brussels / Belgium

Mine is a biege color.  I have also seen pictures on the 'net somewhere
of one that I described as "naked"---it was unpainted and just had the
native metal color, sort of silver.  It looked a little gaudy to me.

I've recently had this one worked to re-regulate and improve the
hammers, and it sounds pretty good now.   It has a Renner action,
as you said, so parts are still available.   During the recent renovation
one tenor string (double) was found to be broken and was replaced.

The instrument came from a small piano store near San Jose,
California, and was purchased new by me about 30 years ago.  The
dealer seemed anxious to get rid of it--apparently he had it on
his floor for some time.  I can't remember exactly, but I believe
I paid about $2500 for it at the time.   Some years later I saw
one at a very large piano warehouse-type store in Los Angeles
with a price tag of $20,000, which I thought was a bit over
the top!

Bill

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