I agree that pre-Aeolian Knabes are excellent structures. I recently did one from 1895 - magnificent piano. However, this piano is a 1926. If my memory serves me correctly, Aeolian bought Knabe within a few years of the turn of the 20th Century. A 1926 Knabe is solidly from the Aeolian era. Still reasonably well built pianos, but nothing like they were in the 1890s. Terry Farrell On Oct 8, 2010, at 6:28 PM, Joe DeFazio wrote: >> From: "Roger Gable" <roger at gablepiano.com> >> Date: October 8, 2010 2:54:12 PM EDT >> >> Nora, >> I agree with Barbara and William that these pianos are not much >> to write home about. > > Hi Nora, > > I will respectfully disagree with this assessment. I find "pre > Aeolian-American" Knabe grands to be among the better built grands > of the first three decades of the 20th century. That wide tail and > heavy understructure separate Knabe's from many of their inferior > contemporaries. Ron N is certainly right that the bridge cap grain > orientation is a problem, but that's one that can be dealt with. > While my opinion is as subjective as can be, it seems to me that > most of the Knabe's from that era that I have serviced, refurbished, > partially rebuilt or played on gigs (without having had the > opportunity to service them) can be said to "have it." The "it" to > which I am referring would be, I suppose, a complex enough and > potentially responsive tone that makes me want to sit and play them, > even if they are in unrestored condition and have had little work > beyond tuning at that point. > >> From: "Roger Gable" >> Over the years I find one underlying negative aspect to piano >> rebuilding; the customer is expecting more than the technician or >> piano can produce. This manifests itself when the technician is >> expecting more than is possible through naiveté or outright >> deception. > SNIP -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101008/b0885e7b/attachment.htm>
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