<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff">Hi list, This may not be new to anyone, but it was a first for me.  This is a 1908 Kranich & Bach.  The first thing I noticed was the plate design.  There were no agraffes,  The strings passed through the plate.  The plate in the capo area was a little thicker than usual.  The strings had individual holes to go through.  I had the pleasure of replacing a bass string.  Not fun.  The problem I found was that you had to put an unnatural upward bend in the wire to coax it into going under cape then up through hole in plate.  What a truly dumb way of stringing. Next came the action.  During tuning notes 87 & 88 were hitting the belly rail.  So I wanted to remove the action to correct them.  No. 1 this piano has the vertical piano style una corda.  The hammers move closer to the strings instead of the action shifting.  3 screws from the bottom of the keybed hold the front rail down.  These were to be unscrewed with the tuning lever.  Of course they were stripped, and one was missing.  No. 2 after action is out I noticed the hammer flanges were reflanged with universal flanges that weren't so universal.  Easy fix there.  No. 3 Now lets put the action back.   Hmmmmm......Why are the bass hammers now a half inch higher than the pinblock?  Oh, I see.  There's a spring loaded whippen rail that rotates the whippen rail forward moving the heel to a different area raising the hammer line to a higher level.  The lever is in the very back of the action where I can't actuate the lever and slide the action in at the same time.  Hmmmm.....Wow, how stupid of a manufacturer to design this.  I was looking for a way to lift up on this lever and slide the action in at the same time.  There were none.  I did see an "L" shaped rod that could be pivoted around to hold the whippen rail down (this is similar to the "L" hooks that hold trapwork in place while moving).  Ahh...this must be how it works....Wrong.  First you cannot spin this around because there is no clearance between the action bracket and it will hit the whippen on the other side, and secondly if you were actually able to turn it with the action out of the piano, you would never be able to turn it while it was in the piano, due to plate interference.  My solution,  take some string and lift the lever in the rear and run the string over the hammer rail while sliding the action back in the the cavity.  This worked well enough for me to put the action back, but the whole time I'm grumbling to myself.  There must have been something I  over looked or the part may have fallen off sometime in its 96 years of existence,  either way it was a first for me.  I don't get first time experiences much anymore. I know some of you have went through the same thing with this PSO.  I know they built more than one. Mike Bratcher </HTML>