Ibach Capstan

[Overs Pianos]

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At 7:31 PM -0400 7/8/04, Terry Farrell wrote:

>I saw an interesting capstan arrangement on a 1905 Ibach concert 
>grand the other day. I wish I had my digital camera with me......
>
>The key has a stick protruding from the top at the capstan location 
>that is connected to the key with an action center (pin, bushings, 
>etc). The stick is just a half-inch or so long. A capstan with 
>threaded rod protruding from both the bottom and top are screwed 
>into the stick on the bottom and the wippen heel on the top. If you 
>turn the capstan clockwise, it screws into both the wippen heel and 
>the stick, thus bringing the heel closer to the key - turn it 
>counterclockwise and the opposite happens.
>
>Looks like a really neat system where you would get no friction loss 
>at the capstan/wippen heel interface. I wonder how much fun it is to 
>remove the stack?
>
>Anyone see this configuration before? Comments?

Hi Terry,

That's a tied action, and they work very well indeed. The only 
downside, from a modern pianist's perspective, is that the keys being 
tied to the wippens causes them to bounce a little on their return to 
rest. This doesn't effect the way the action plays, but its a little 
off-putting to some pianists.

This action is more difficult to deal with when it comes to removing 
it from the keyboard. However, the bottom of the prolong is slotted 
to allow for disengagement with the key prior to removing the stack. 
To disengage the wippen from the key you just hold the key down while 
pressing the underside of the wippen upwards. The prolong just 
un-clips from the lower centre pin. Once all wippens have been 
disconnected the stack can be removed. They have to be clipped back 
into place once the stack has been replaced. This also is a bit of a 
pain, since the prolongs often will need to be positioned correctly 
before clipping the key and wippen back together.

They're an interesting action, and a much better design than the 
Bechstein tied action arrangement. I haven't seen an Ibach concert 
piano. If ever you go back to the piano with your digital camera, I'd 
be very interested to see some images.

Best,
Ron O.
-- 
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
    Grand Piano Manufacturers
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