Anyone here have experience with Rippen pianos? I believe I have only
worked on one, and it was a strange experience. The lid actually had a
prop that was meant to hold it vertically! (See photo) Before I
started, I noted that two bass strings had broken, leaving one string
sounding in each of these bichord notes. So I replaced the missing ones
with universals. After that, as I was tuning the piano, the other
string in each of these notes broke! In the photo I see that I was
tuning it without removing the mute pedal felt strip, which of course I
normally always do, but clearly for this piano I must have found that it
was difficult to remove.
Some people think that the Rippen cases were cool, and indeed a good
number of the verticals had interesting shapes. Perhaps the vertical
lid position fit with their notion of unique case designs? Anyway, the
one I worked on just seemed to be cruddy. I have found a few recordings
of Rippens online, and those sound cruddy too, although it might be the
recording equipment.
Someone just contacted me with a request to tune their Rippen vertical,
and do some repairs. I'm inclined not to quote any fee and just charge
by the hour.