Zwicki

[Tom Myler]

>I tuned a Zwicki vertical the other day. I had never heard of a Zwicki.
>The owner of the piano said it was a Danish piano. It was a vertical
>piano that had the pinblock on TOP of the frame. I lifted up the lid, and
>found the pins standing upright. It was like tuning a grand, with the
>tuning lever handle facing me. I had never run into a piano like that
>before. Has anyone ever seen a piano like that before?
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>KeyTeck      Ben Wood       databytes@juno.com
>          "If ya can't tune it, spinet"



I tuned one annually for about ten years, until the owner died and her
daughter took it out of state.

Very attractive Danish Modern cabinet.   Renner drop action  (yes, Renner),
very high quality.   Played/responded quite well despite having the shortest
keysticks I've ever seen.    Tuning pins as you described:  on top of the
pinblock.    The strings came toward you from the tuning pins, then "fell"
over the edge of the pinblock in a sharp, very abrupt 90 degree turn down
toward the bridges.

Tuning this thing was always quite an experience.  The tone was poor, not
surprising with such a tiny piano.  It was only 20-25 years old at the time,
but because of that 90 degree turn the strings were essentially frozen in
position at that spot.   When I first met this instrument, it was in good
tune but at A-438.   No matter how much I tuned and persuaded and whacked
and swore, I never succeeded in getting the pitch to change the tinest bit,
and only the tinest changes in tuning would stay put for longer than a
moment.

One of the most interesting I've ever seen.



Tom Myler

"Several More or Less Satisfied Customers for Quite Some Time"