Rippen opinions, please!

[Isaac OLEG]

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Hi Andre,

I totally agree with you that Rippen pianos are very strongly build, and
indeed they have a nice tone, without much reaction during the dry winters,
for the few I service sometime.

A number of interesting development for sure. The Rippens I have seen before
where often rented, because of their longevity. a few are in schools, still
alive and doing their job.

I like their tone, don't know the grand models actually, I may have tuned a
few but did not remember well about them.

Well for a piano not build in France it is not too bad in the end <G>


Best
Isaac OLEG

Entretien et réparation de pianos.

PianoTech
17 rue de Choisy
94400 VITRY sur SEINE
FRANCE
tel : 033 01 47 18 06 98
fax : 033 01 47 18 06 90
cell: 06 60 42 58 77

  -----Message d'origine-----
  De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
part de antares@euronet.nl
  Envoyé : samedi 7 juin 2003 18:50
  Ŕ : Pianotech
  Objet : Re: Rippen opinions, please!


  Gordon, here is a an e-mail about Rippen I sent a long time ago :

  List,

  The Rippen factory was originally a Dutch piano factory in a place called
  Ede, in the center of Holland.
  Everybody always made fun of the Rippen products (including me) because in
  Holland there is a deep rooted feeling that everything outside this
Country
  is automatically better and superior.

  -It is a Dutch phenomenon that if anybody in this Country has earned a
  somewhat higher status and/or makes much more money than the neighbor,
then
  he/she has to watch out and take care not to stick out too much.
  There is a Dutch saying "Hoge bomen vangen veel wind" which translates :
  "tall trees catch a lot of wind".
  In regard to this I would recommend reading Simon Schama's book 'the
  embarrassment of riches' which gives a superior and detailed account of
  Holland in the 17th century (Golden age) and it gives us an extensive
image
  of the Dutch psyche.
  Aside from that, it is a very well written book and a great pleasure to
read

  When I started working as an apprentice for one of the leading firms here
in
  Amsterdam, I was for the first time in my life confronted with products of
  the Rippen factory.
  As I had no actual knowledge yet, nor a developed taste in piano sound, I
  could not really distinguish good from bad or beautiful from less
beautiful.
  However, this period lasted for about a year, and slowly but surely I was
  able to tell the differences between all the pianos sold there.
  This big firm does not exist anymore, but at the time (30 years ago) they
  had in their assortment : Bechstein, Yamaha, Feurich, Schimmel, Sauter,
  Petrof, Rösler, Förster, Brinsmead, Kemble, Welmar, and Rippen.
  The Rippens were quite popular because the price was right, they had a
very
  good bass, a reliable Renner and/or Langer action and rather remarkable
  construction. They were further used over and over again as piano rentals
  because they proved to be very strong and reliable simplicity

  What then was so remarkable about their construction?

  Well, in the uprights :

  1. the ribs in the older models were on the inside of the soundboard,
  2. the soundboard was therefor not convex but concave and a dry winter
  caused the soundboard to give more 'down bearing' instead of the ususal
  opposite,
  3. the soundboard was not glued to the rim in the bass section, cusing a
  very very beautiful and interesting bass,
  4. the soundboards were laminated with three spruce layers,
  5. the angle of the grain varied by a degree of 90 degrees.

  in the grand :

  1. the rim was medal of metal,
  2. the soundboard was not glued onto the rim, but screwed tight,
  3. the soundboards were laminated with three spruce layers,
  4. the soundboards were laminated with three spruce layers,
  5. the angle of the grain varied by a degree of 90 degrees.
  6. there was no real distinction in character between bass and treble.

  Then there was another and highly daring development in the line of
upright
  models : an upright in the shape of a grand...a vertical grand piano like
  the old giraffes but then shorter.
  The action was really weird, like a fan and the case was funny too as it
was
  possible to lift the whole grand shaped top lid from the instrument, in
  order to work on it (tune, regulate etc).

  All these developments took place decades ago, in the 19th Century.
  It was in the end a failure, financially speaking, but it shows that
behind
  all this was the head of a true inventor.
  Inventors often need guidance in their financial cares.
  A good Dutch example is airplane maker Fokker : in the last stages of
  development (actually only a few years ago) they built outstanding
airplanes
  with revolutionary gluing techniques and electronics. They went down
because
  of their succes. Another highly respected person is the old Mr, van
Doorne,
  the inventor of the fully automatic auto transmission with the aid of a
  metallic tape or ribbon consisting of metal links. Because of technical
  production difficulties the factory went broke a number of times and in
the
  end his invention was bought up, improved, and used - world wide - by
other
  auto makers.

  It is a story told many times over.
  In the piano industry too there were quite a number of great inventors
with
  very remarkable 'finds'.
  Mr. Rippen was a small and humble inventor, but one of 'them'
nevertheless.

  One of our respected colleagues here in Holland has worked in the Rippen
  factory. His name is Rudyard Billenkamp and he is willing to share his
  (initial) technical Rippen background with all.

  His e-mail address is :

  rudyard@euronet.nl

  friendly greetings
  from

  Antares,

  Amsterdam, Holland

  "where music is, no harm can be"



  On zaterdag, jun 7, 2003, at 17:47 Europe/Amsterdam, gordon stelter wrote:


    Dear list,
    There is a 1984, 42"(?) Rippen upright for sale in
    the paper. I know that these have been mentioned on
    the list from time to time, but I forget the gist of
    the comments. Please tell me what you think of these
    pianos.
    Sincerely,
    Gordon Stelter


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  Antares,
  The Netherlands

  see my website at : www.concertpianoservice.nl

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