[pianotech] Kimball Player Piano

[Rob McCall]

Thanks, Ken, for the great advice.  If I decide to take on this job after gathering intel, I've already decided to charge extra for the disassembly and re-assembly.  I'm leaning towards an hourly rate, but I'm entertaining a flat rate, too.

Anyone prefer flat rate over hourly or vice versa?

Rob McCall
McCall Piano Service, LLC
Murrieta, CA

rob at mccallpiano.com
www.mccallpiano.com
951-698-1875



On Nov 14, 2009, at 17:35 , Ken & Pat Gerler wrote:

> Rob,
> To add to John's notes and reaffirm. Put a roll on it and play it before you touch anything else.
> 
> Next, IF it is an early Kimball Upright, the spool box was high almost completely above the action, So-o-o-o the complete assembly has to be removed before you can comfortably get to the tuning pins.
> 
> The Scott Joplin House here in St. Louis has one the early Kimball's and on two occasions I have had to go in and do repairs because someone that didn't know anything about players damaged the player and/or broke strings trying to tune without removing the player action. If I had some pictures of it, I would attach them.
> 
> The other size of Kimball player in the later era is the spinet player. Those (as well as the one described above) do have instructions on what to do to get to the tuning pins to tune.
> 
> As far as time on the Kimball's, you have to allow time to dismantle and reassemble in your tuning time estimate.
> 
> Like John said, a number of the players have enough space OR the action has a pivot so you can move part of it enough to get to the tuning pins in a matter of a couple of minutes.  But, if the piano action has problems, the player action WILL have to come out to access the piano action.
> 
> Have fun.
> 
> Ken Gerler