Knabe Tuning Mystery

[Thomas Cole]

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Thanks, Carlos, a person with actual experience!

I'm only considering restringing because of breakage in the high treble. 
No pigeon patina or soundboard damage, block is tight, action great 
except it could use new hammers. But I can see that I'll have to 
eliminate as much as possible the climatic changes.

Did you drill the holes deeper for the new pins?

Tom Cole

Carlos Ralon wrote:

> I am just finishing a full restoration on a 1893 Knabe 57" upright.  
> Why the tuning instability?  This model Knabe is VERY suseptible to 
> temp and humidity change.  Only because of personal reasons did I take 
> on this job.  In other words it's a freebe for the steaming historic 
> Liberty museum ship, the S.S. John W. Brown.  Both ship and piano 
> built in Baltimore.  The 3/4 plate flange is tightly wedged beneath 
> the pin block, and is wraped under the piano bottom and screwed there. 
> I think this plate and S.B. configuration does not allow for much 
> movement due to climatic change.  I discovered this piano in a 
> wharehouse on a Baltimore dock next to the ship.  It had been there 
> since WW II covered with what pidgens do.  The tuning was still near 
> 435 and the pins were tight. However the SB was split pulling the ribs 
> loose.  One should note that this era Knabe used #1 by only 2" tuning 
> pins, take care what size you re-install.  We have replaced the sound 
> board and the bass pin block.  The bridges were fine.  We had to 
> remove the bass side of the case to get the extremely tight fitting 
> plate out of the piano.
> The action has a double stack with rocker capstans and is very hard to 
> find action parts.  After stringing and kept in proper climate 
> conditions the tuning is very stable at A440 with a booming tone some 
> grands would like to have.  I've had the piano in my shop for about 4 
> years, working between the pay jobs.  IMO this type of job should 
> never be undertaken with profit in mind. Maybe before I check out, 
> this old veteran ship of WW II  will get a nice piano for her crew and 
> passangers as she visits ports along the Atlantic coast.  Visit it at 
> www.liberty-ship.com <http://www.liberty-ship.com>.
> Carlos Ralon, RPT 


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