Kranich and Bach Plate Crack

[Richard Moody]

----------
> From: Les Smith <lessmith@buffnet.net>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Kranich and Bach Plate Crack
> Date: Saturday, September 26, 1998 11:04 AM
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, 26 Sep 1998, Richard Moody wrote:
> 
> > To put it bluntly, this is a defective design. 
> 
> I assume that you're talking about the whole piano here, not just the
> plate.  If so, I think that criticism is unjustified. Affter all,
> K&B did have an attractive fallboard decal. 

OK Les I will rise to the bait if I can stop laughing long enought to
type. I didn't mean the whole piano unless it is the one that had the
action with  pot metal brackets and capstains that break when they decide
to call the tuner for the first time in ten years.  Or the legs secured by
two seating dowels and two screws of which the movers lost one or more.
And without thinking you  to suggest to the lady of the house to move it
out of the corner away from the wrap around picture windows. Hell, leave
it there and hasten it's demise.  Or the lyre that comes unglued and the
pedal box sits on the floor, or the pedal board has stripped out its four
screws. Viva Reader's Digest for getting such a mess back together. You
don't even wanna know what is inside the pedal box
	And what do they call the knuckles that really aren't knuckles but a band
saw swagger cut on the shank with a piece of leather glued over it? (Well
actually they do resemble knuckles more than do rollers, a name I never
cottoned to) And on the keys instead of the maple inserts for the b r
holes its just through the soft pine, and its not just lousey b r bushings
but the key is also warped because it wasn't choice grain to begin with. 
	Is this the one with the bridge pins that USED to go 1/8 inch beyond the
cap but now don't because they are so split out?..... Which draws your
attention away from the sound board that looks like it was made of pine,
and is pulling away from the ribs with multi cracks?  And when viewing
this from underneath you wonder for a split second why every thing is so
visible then you realize there are NO support posts. 
`	The top falls off because of three short screws, (as if they were trying
to save $ by using short screws) or the fold back part is sliding off
because they used a piano hinge that takes twice as less screws and they
are short at that? 
	The action is held down by nifty L shaped screws, but they are so tight
the action doesn't slide back after the soft pedal is let off, or so much
pressure is needed on the pedal, the lyre pulls apart. Instead of the
keyblocks holding down the front of the action there are two tiny blocks
with two screws that got swapped and put in gackwards and upside down
because some one was too laZy at the factory to mark them? Has moth damage
because they didn't use the right moth proofing? The music rack slides
have to be unscrewed to tune the first two strings? Who the heck ever uses
those notes anynow? 
	The fall board decal?  What fall board decal?  Oh there is, or what is
left of it through the checked and crumbling cheap varnish. 

	

Ric The Stic'ler for lousey details