[pianotech] Lindner

[Bill Peterson]

Hi David, I agree with you that there are time an act of charity is a good thing.  I stand wholeheartedly behind you for your decision.  I do not give to organized charities, as I am know that they work with a profit ratio.  When I encounter someone that I feel is really trying, I will bend over backwards to help.  I find it very emotionally rewarding to help people that help themselves.  I am a former piano technician, now a locksmith.  Once in a great while I have been played for a sucker.  I then say that they probably really needed it at the time.
  
Bill Peterson  a visitor at the So Bay Chapter
Happy New Year
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Boyce 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 9:24 AM
  Subject: [pianotech] Lindner


  I was asked by a lady who's a friend of a friend, to come and tune a piano she had been given for free. When I got there I found it was a Lindner. I used to encounter a few of them about 20 years ago, but not seen one for a long time. I guess they're mostly too broken to use, and consigned to the garbage dump now.  

  For those unfamiliar with them, they were made in a factory set up in ireland in the early 60s by Rippen and made extensive use of plastics for the action and keys. Instead of having mass and pivoting on a pin, the keys are hollow plastic, extremely light, and have thin fragile leaf springs in the centre. Production ceased in the early 1970s.

  Annoyingly, the frame, scale and pinblock are all quite serviceable. They tune up well and the tone is good for a piano of the size. It's the action parts and keys that fail.

  On this one, four of the damper springs weren't working and two of the hammer flanges were disloged from the rail (they clip into place rather than having screws).  The problem with the damper springs wasn't the metal springs, but the tiny bit of plastic on the flange into which the tails located.

  What to do?  This lady has six children from 8 months to 12 years, a husband recently left for pastures new, few funds, and the two oldest boys seeming to be very musical.  I wanted to do SOMETHING to get the little piano semi-servicable for at least a few months, until they could find something better.  I ended up using cut-down jack springs glued to damper slap rail and to the damper wires (flat section). There was enough push in them to press the dampers sufficiently onto the strings.  I had to glue one of the dislocated hammer flanges back into the rail as it wouldn't stay put, and the other (at the end) I just left.  Then a tuning to existing pitch, and the thing is at least playable for the time being.  I didn't charge.

  Probably with today's plastics materials, actions and keyboards made to the Lindner design would be much more durable. But the lightweight leaf-sprung keys would never feel right, I suspect.

  Best regards,

  David.

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