Music Trade Review

Issue: 1931 Vol. 90 N. 7

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
July, 1931
Fred Gennett and R. C. Ball were the com-
pany officials in charge of the exhibit.
The Starr factory facilities and organiza-
tion at Richmond, Ind., are ample to provide
the experience and engineering knowledge
NE of the principal subjects of inter- Knocks," as he had native intelligence, am- necessary to make high quality products in
est among the piano displays during bition, energy and conscientiousness. Soon the Starr Freeze. "The company," as Mr.
the recent convention in Chicago was developed an aptitude for technical prob- Ball put it, "has put out an electrical re-
was the new small upright piano produced lems, and a dawning appreciation of the frigerator of distinction, advanced in con-
by Charles Frederick Stein. This instrument, value of music, then technical study, intense venience, economical and outstanding in quiet,
application and creative ability. Those who dependable performance."
long heralded, has been awaited with inter-
know Charles Frederick Stein are aware that
est, for Mr. Stein's reputation as a master
They have already built up an extensive
builder of grand pianos naturally led his
and energetic organization of distributors in-
friends in the trade to expect something
cluding some of the largest houses in the
unusual in uprights. In this they were not
piano business.
disappointed, for the little instrument, known
l
as style I and only 3 feet 9 / 2 inches high,
W. H. HUTTER JOINS
is not only a fine example of piano crafts-
CAPEHART CORP. STAFF
manship but has a surprising tonal quality
that compares most favorably with that of
An important addition to the electrical
many grands.
staff of The Capehart Corp., Fort Wayne,
Ind., is announced in the appointment of
At the Palmer House exhibit the trade
W. H. Hutter, who becomes chief electrical
technicians gathered around, tested, pounded
engineer and in charge of the manufacturer's
and examined this upright, and quickly
division sales. For the past twenty-five years
passed around the word that it was a superb
Mr. Hutter has specialized in audition and
achievement. Then the tuners, the dealers
acoustical research, and will concentrate on
and other manufacturers added their un-
the more intensive development of tone qual-
qualified praise, which can be summed up in
ities for which the Capehart line of automatic
the comment of one of them, "that piano is
instruments is already widely known.
a great achievement, a credit to the entire
Mr. Hutter's early training was with the
industry." Naturally many orders and ap-
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. in this
plications for agency followed, proving that
field, and there he developed original designs
absolute merit will financially be rewarded,
in electrical pick-up construction. He was
but it is characteristic of Charles Frederick
formerly chief engineer of the Webster Elec-
CHARLES FREDERICK STEIN
Stein that he was more gratified by the tech-
tric Co., Racine.
nical success of his creation than by the his piano is to him the ideal of self-expres-
number of orders he got.
sion. He eats, sleeps, works, lives, with the
The Waltham Piano Co., Milwaukee, has
This praise from the builders and the thought of betterment always in mind, being opened a branch in Stevens Point, Wis.
recognition of ability by competitors is sweet supremely happy in this, his chosen life work,
to any business men, and especially true in on which he can look back, after forty years
Mr. Stein's case, coming after a lifetime of effort, with satisfaction and pride of ac-
spent solely in piano building. He began complishment.
working for a living as a small boy in the
He has no thought of vast factories and
millroom of a local piano factory. Then his immense production, but each piano must
whole thought was to get a job and make be a perfect expression of his care and ability.
a living, for that was his prime necessity. Hence the growth, steady and sure, of his
What he lacked in school book knowledge, business, year by year, in the face of a
NY member of the music trade may
he acquired in the "University of Hard
skeptical trade and poor business conditions.
forward to this office a Position
CHAS. FREDERICK STEIN'S NEW UPRIGHT
AROUSES GREAT INTEREST AT CONVENTION
O
THE REVIEW'S
WANT DIRECTORY
A
The company expects to be in full produc-
tion by July IS in their own factory in
Huntington, Ind., and intends to make a spe-
Several hundred members of the trade cialty of reaching the public with this
visited the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago dur- machine through established dealers. Those
ing convention week to examine the new who heard it were highly gratified by the
tonal excellence as well as power and the
King automatic phonograph, a new electrical
efficiency of the mechanism. It plays ten
mechanism built by the Superior Phonograph
Co., of Huntington, Ind. This is the in- double-faced records and is intended to reach
vention of T. W. Small, a well-known me- the public at a very moderate price, which
inspires confidence in its commercial success.
chanical engineer, who is widely recognized
as a pioneer in this field. Mr. Small is
president of the company, with S. E. Guest
STARR CO. SHOWS VARIETY
as secretary-treasurer. Other members of
the new organization, which is an Indiana
OF PRODUCTS IN CHICAGO
corporation with $50,000 capital, are P. O.
The Starr Piano Co., of Richmond, Ind.,
Miller and T. E. Beckingham.
had an extensive exhibit at the Stevens Hotel
President Small and his associates exhibited
in the Radio Show, where were exhibited the
the'iT new automatic and explained its mech- Starr cabinets, Gennett electrical transcription
anism, patents on which have been applied
records, several Starr grand pianos and three
for in the United States and foreign coun- models of the Stair Freeze electric refrigera-
tries. Th£ .mechanism is quite simple, com- tors, styles "O" Oxford model; style "M"
pact and efficient, and the company's Miami'; and style "W" Wabash. To the
attorneys advised them that a patent is ex- exhibit came all the Starr piano representa-
pected on their oscillating magazine and feed tives visiting Chicago and many of them
arm which are new features of this latest made arrangements to take on the Starr
Freeze electric refrigerators as a side line.
T. W. Small device.
KING AUTO PHONOGRAPH
DISPLAYED AT CONVENTION
Wanted or Help Wanted adver-
tisement intended for this Department, to
occupy four lines, and it will be inserted
free. Replies will also be forwarded with-
out cost. Additional space charged at
the rate of 25c per line. If bold-faced
type is desired, the cost for same will be
25c a line, 6 words to a line.
Cash must accompany order.
Business Opportunities and For Sale
advertisements inserted as display space
only at $5.00 per single column inch.
.POSITION
WANTED —A-l, tuner,
repairs
]>i;inos and small Roods. Know whole music game.
Desire Southern or Western States.
First con-
tract not longer than six months. Address liox
3425 Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue,
New York.
POSITION WA"NTED—by radio service man
willing to install antennas, also capable piano tuner
and repairer. Single, sober and reliable. Address
Box 3423, Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington
Avenue, New York.
. .
PIANO SALESMAN—with department store
training, buying and sales managing, desires posi-
tion in West, where conditions will permit money
making. S. T. Aaron, 235 S. Negley Ave., Pitts-
burgh, Pa.
POSITION WANTED—as piano salesman, sales
manager or manager of music store.
Twenty
years' experience as sales manager.
Employed
now but desire to make a change. Address Box
3420, Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue,
New Yort.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PIANO FACTORY and
PIANO SERVICING
DR. W M . BRAID WHITE
Technical Editor
Some Comments on
THE REGULATION OF
GRAND PIANOS
DR. WM. BRAID WHITE
I
HAVK had a most interesting letter froin
Mr. Fred Cunningham, of Greenwood,
Miss., on the regulating of grand pianos.
Mr. Cunningham has been a successful
tuner for a long time in his part of the
world, but he tells me that, like many others
of the craft, he has always been uncertain on
some essential points of the regulating of
grand pianos. In his letter he speaks par-
ticularly about Steinvvay grand pianos and
the regulating of their actions. I shall there-
fore discuss here this month some of the
points of grand action regulating as they
appear before and confront the outside tuner.
Mr. Cunningham rightly observes that an
outside tuner has a problem to solve quite
different from that which is put before the
man in the shop who can follow a well-
smoothed road. In the shop a carefully laid
out routine may be followed from the be-
ginning to the end of each day's work. Even-
piano comes to the regulator in the same
condition. That is to say, each one comes to
him "action-finished," which means that its
action and keys have been adjusted to its
strings, and that it therefore can already be
played, in the sense that keys can be pressed
and that hammers, as a result of the pressure,
will strike strings and so induce tones. The
business of the regulator is to make those
fine adjustments which give elasticity, re-
sponsiveness and physical uniformity to the
action, and thereby turn the piano into a
musical instrument of artistic stature. Tac-
tual and mechanical perfection are quite as
important to the piano as the physical prop-
erties of its strings and of its soundboard.
Now the outside tuner usually finds him-
self called upon to do work upon the actions
of grand pianos only when either some phys-
ical defect has become extremely noticeable,
THE
M U S I C
TRADE
or else when he himself in the course of tun-
ing discovers conditions imperatively calling
for correction. If he is a conscientious artist
he may very often do correction work for
which he does not get paid; but that is an-
other story. Now, just because most of the
pianos which have to be regulated by him
are, for these reasons, more or less well worn
and show the effects of wear, he will nearly
always have to deal with sagging touch, loss
of key dip, loss of escapement of hammers,
rattling, clicking, failure of repetition, fail-
ure of damping, failure or defect of working
in the damper pedal, failure or defect in
the other two pedals.
Tone regulating I shall not here discuss,
and so the physical condition of the hammer
felt shall be left for the time being out of
consideration.
KEY FRAME IS FOUNDATION
Now the grand action rests, physically and
mechanically alike, upon its key frame. The
first thing to examine then is this frame, and
the first thing to do is to make sure that the
keys are aligned properly and that each one
has its proper depth of descent in the front
and height of ascent in the rear.
The chapter on the action and its Tegula-
tion of my "Modern Piano Tuning" contains
a complete treatment of the whole regulation
problem and has especially explained all
the facts connected with the keyboard, the
depth of touch and so on. Now it is very
important to remember that one cannot re-
store an action to its pristine usefulness un-
less one first attends to the key frame and
the keys. One should first remove the action
entirely and then place at the back of each
key a small lump of lead equal in weight to
REVIEW,
one section of the action. It is worth taking
the trouble to weigh the hammer, stem, and
wippen, and then to have eighty-eight little
lumps of lead prepared, each with a bit of
wire protruding from it, of such a kind that
the lead can be stuck into the back of the
key near the capstan, by means of it. This
will hold the parts of the keys up as if the
action were actually in place. The keys may
then be lined up, leveled, and if necessary
raised. Usually there will be some loss of
level in the middle of the key frame, in
which case one should loosen the screws
which hold the middle keyrail (balance rail)
to the frame and slip between rail and frame
two little strips of cardboard, one on each
side of the screw. It may be necessary to do
this at more than one point. I might say
here that one of the essential tools in work
of this kind is a good straight-edge, long
enough to go across the whole keyboard and
light enough to rest on the keys without de-
pressing them. A good plan is to get a car-
penter to make a straight-edge from a suit-
able piece of straight-grained pine or spruce.
Maple is a bit heavy.
When one starts to level up it is advisable
to cut two small blocks of wood, each Y% f
thick and pierced with a hole in its center.
These are to be slipped over the front rail
pins of keys No. 1 and No. 88. They must
be small enough in their other dimensions to
rest comfortably on the front-rail punchings.
The straight-edge can rest on these, and the
key leveling then becomes quite a simple mat-
ter.
KEYBEDS SOMETIMES SAG
At the same time it is well to look always
at the keyboard of the piano, and to test by
WHERE CAN YOU GET
PLAYER ACTION
REPAIRS and SUPPLIES
The MOORE and FISHER Manufacturing Co.
Deep River, Conn.
July, 1 9 3 1
27

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