I never knew the history of the piano, so thanks, Bruce, for the lesson. Shortly after we moved to the US in 1956, my dad opened a pianos store. He tried to sell Rippon pianos. He sold maybe a dozen. (These were the ones made in Holland.)  I do remember that the case designs were very unusual. One problem he did have, as I recall, was damage to the crates and the pianos. He claimed it was the dock workers in Chicago who, according to him, didn't like anything made overseas. <div style="CLEAR: both">Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Honolulu, HI Author of The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com</div> <div id=AOLMsgPart_0_2f00651f-5494-4b81-95b6-44fbe3096c04 style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: #000; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff">  On Mar 22, 2008, at 6:47 AM, <A href="mailto:justpianos@our.net.au">justpianos@our.net.au</A> wrote:    > Holly,  > Recently I was approached by a customer wanting a quote on repairing a  > Lindner piano. She told me that other tuners had refused to look at > the  > piano, so I made some investigations, to see what I could do. > Here’s what  > I found.  > The Lindner piano was a clever design that fell foul of poor > materials.  > The Rippen company originated in The Hague, west of Holland, where > they  > built pianos the classical way. After World War II the company > moved to  > Ede. They bought an old factory hall, extended it and started building  > pianos in a new way. In those post-war years there was a huge > demand for  > pianos, but most people did not have much to spend. Rippen decided to  > develop a "low cost" instrument, and they were successful. They > were also  > assembling and selling the Thomas organ, which originated in the USA.  > During the 1960s Ireland had lots of unemployed, and the Irish > government  > was looking for investments in order to create more jobs. They > published a  > bill in which they declared that in Shannon, near the local airport,  > foreign companies could achieve quite substantial tax reductions, > if only  > this would lead to a certain amount of local jobs.  > Rippen was already selling pianos in the USA, using the Thomas organ  > connection, but pianos being heavy, had to be shipped by boat, > which made  > it necessary to take care of sea-packaging, and so on.  > They had a brain-storm: if they could make a lightweight piano they > could  > ship it by air. And if they produced it at Shannon the investment > would be  > low, and for a nice number of years the tax reductions would be  > profitable. So they started the development of the "plastic piano". > They  > used a frame of aluminium tubes welded together, and they replaced > as much  > of the wooden parts as possible by plastic, ending up with an > instrument  > of only 75 kilos. Since the keyboard could be turned downwards > inside the  > chest they were able to ship two pianos almost in the space > normally used  > by one. They could then send them everywhere, as long as an > airplane could  > land.  > Only the plastic parts were produced at Shannon, normal parts were  > purchased from external suppliers, and Renner even developed a special  > action mechanism. The main factory at Ede in the Netherlands > supplied some  > parts as well.  > You might be interested to know that Rippen, in their post-war models,  > never did use a "rast" (those posts of 4 x 4 inches). They glued and  > screwed the pinblock onto the plate, so all the strength had to > come from  > the cast iron frame.  > The sound boards of all Rippen/Lindner pianos were made out of three  > layers, cross-glued: a triplex. One true advantage: it could not > crack,  > although these Lindner models had quite limited tonal qualities.  > It is not know how many instruments were produced at Shannon. In > Ede the  > maximum output was 18 instruments per day, 5 days a week.  > Rippen went broke in the year 1987.  >  > Generally Lindner pianos are worthless now as most of the action is > made  > of plastic and practically impossible to repair when it goes wrong. > Most  > Lindners are at an age where they are rapidly disintegrating, hence  > utterly worthless as a piano, although when they are working they > have a  > reasonable touch. No replacement parts are available and most times > the  > piano is not worth the trouble to repair.  > Normally keyboard keys can be lifted out without any problem. The > plastic  > keys of the Lindner snap in, and thus the keys cannot be removed by  > pulling them away: they need to be unlocked. However, often these keys  > will come out just by pulling, but the clips will easily break.  > Provided the keys are still whole you've got a chance of repairs. But  > whatever you do, don't try to glue the plastic keys - it simply won't  > take. Super glue, epoxy, Airfix - none of it works. I'm sure there's a  > clever plastic welding glue or system that might work - but the first  > question would have to be WHY! You can actually borrow the parts > you need  > to get the middle going from the extreme ends. What's the old saying,  > "nobody plays these notes anyway"?  > You may need a mixture of hammer flanges (they are a modular snap > in job  > that often doesn't snap anymore) and the spring steel balance pin  > thingees. All of these bits are interchangeable (which is part of the  > basically clever idea behind the poor execution*).  > Do the repairs first – there is a chance that while you're tuning more  > bits will break - this is the only benefit of this whole thing - > you won't  > have nearly as much of the piano to tune once you're done. Or sell > it to  > another owner of one of these gems so that they have spares - it's > a bit  > like owning an old Citroen/Peugeot/Morris/Austin – you never own > one - you  > need at least three to keep one on the road! The broken key clips > seem a  > common problem.  > It is interesting that the front key dip is adjustable > individually, from  > under the key bed.  > Nobody seems to have invested in injection molding tools for  > re-manufacturing the clips, but an easy and reliable way to repair > these  > pianos is to weld the clips. The plastic of the clips seems to be > Nylon,  > which gets weakened in the heat. Welding the clips with hot air is  > feasible, but heating time, air flow profile and temperature > profile is  > quite critical. Ordinary hot air blowers will not do the job. Use a > repair  > station for soldering electronic surface mount devices, Weller (Model  > WQB2000 finepitch/BGA repair) with a nozzle for SOP8. A simple > fixture  > makes sure that the clip has the correct size to fit into the aluminum  > rail. Take a minimum of 3 minutes to heat up, then apply a heat > peak to  > both broken surfaces then press together -- done.  > Heating the complete clip to slightly below the melting point seems > also  > to change the Nylon molecular constitution, and the welded clip > appears  > flexible as new.  > Thanks to all who contributed, the WWWeb is a wonderful thing!  > Bruce Browning – The Piano Tuner  >  >    </div> <div id='u8CA5A5C4C0DBE88-1488-376C' class='aol_ad_footer'><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Planning your summer road trip? Check out <A title="http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000015" href="http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000015" target="_blank">AOL Travel Guides</A>. </div>