Pianotech

Hello All,

I'd like to start with saying I'm new to piano tuning and repair. I'm doing some practice with friends and family. I have one friend that acquired a free piano awhile back. The piano is a CONN Brand. It appears to be a spinet piano but when I took it apart to inspect it, the end of the keys bend downward and press up on the wippen. It even appears to have a capstan. It doesn't have rods that pull on to activate the hammers like all the other spinet pianos I'm used to. 

Has anyone had any experience with these pianos? If you have any sort of information, I'd love to learn more about them. I have not come across them in any books I have or videos I've watched. 

Thanks, 

I've worked on many of these.  There's a lot of friction and sluggish keys in most of them.  I usually use Jiffy Leads on them.  Easier to remove the action than a spinet.  I'm not a fan.

I think most supply houses have Jiffy Leads.  I don't really like using them, but on a cheap piano I'll use them.  

Check for plastic parts, flanges, damper levers, jacks, before you act so you know ahead of time that there might be fragile parts. Always good to have replacement flanges on hand.

Hi David,

I've seen these many times before. Kimball called them Consolettes, and that's the name I typically give to any piano that has this design. The idea was that a direct blow action could fit into a spinet case without the need for lifters and the normal drop action design. The thinking behind it is that it's usually easier to service a direct blow action rather than an indirect blow action, so these pianos would get the service they need. For the most part, it worked. I've seen several of these that have been in good regulation, while most spinets are not.

One thing that's interesting about these is that some of them have what I call miniature action parts. Some have full size parts in them, while in others the parts look to be able 3/4 the normal size. If you come across one with miniature parts, your normal tools will probably not fit. Thankfully the small size tools are pretty easy to find, but it's another thing to have to order.

Good luck working on it! These can be decent actions, especially for a spinet piano. It will take some time and patience and possibly different tools, but it's not that much more difficult to work on than a console is. (Minus having to remove the keys to adjust the capstans, as Wim pointed out.)

Thank you all for the information! This is great! 

The piano action actually was not too bad; I thought it was actually a noticeable difference from the regular spinet drop action but yes, a bit sluggish like mentioned. I checked the parts, all seem to be wood, no plastic parts that I could identify. Luckly the action and keys were in good shape so didn't have to remove them.  

Unfortunately, the bridge for the bass strings is cracked and therefore the bass strings make a very bad rattling, but my friends got it for free so they don't really mind. The rest of the piano actually sounds decent for a small stature piano like that.

A couple of the high treble strings also sound strange, I couldn't figure out where the extra noise was coming from, the hammers were in good position. I may have to inspect if something is in the action now that I know a little more with what I'm dealing with. 

I'd personally much rather work and learn on regular uprights and grands but everyone around me willing to let me play with their instruments seem to have the dreaded spinet....

Thanks again! 

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David 
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I believe it is the Kimball Consolette which was between a spinet and a console. I have some pictures that I took from one a customer here owns What was amazing about her piano was that it had been owned by many aunts and uncles and she had a genealogy starting when it was new and first in the dirt floor of the farm house basement in Idaho. I did some cleaning under the keys and elsewhere and it was full of fine sands that came from the potato farm the family had . Apparently tuners and technicians where scarce or did not have a good parts source. some of the key punchingsb must have been lunch forn moths or bugs and replacements where made using craft felt and cloth. In some cases even punchings made of egg carton foam where used. the piano worked fine despite this field repair