Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Hundreds of Gulbransen War Pianos
Used by Armed Forces, War Agencies
Among recent letters received by
the Gulbransen Co., Chicago, 111., was
one from R. D. Parrott, tuner and
owner of the Fairbanks Music Com-
pany, Fairbanks, Alaska, who stated:
"During my travels all over Alaska,
I have had the chance of tuning some
of your own makes and found them to
be standard in keeping in tune above
other makes. For instance, one of
your pianos is now located in the USO
building here in Fairbanks and it has
stayed in tune longer than any piano
I have tuned in the whole of Alaska.
I will say this, that Alaska is hard
on pianos in any part of Alaska and
I know your pianos have in the past
been very popular in Alaska."
For the past three years the Gul-
bransen Co. has been specializing in
pianos for the Armed Services and
hundreds of Army and Navy agencies
have been supplied with their pianos.
There have been, in addition, several
hundred pianos of special design made
up for the Philadelphia Quartermaster
Depot.
These pianos are equipped with a
six post back, each post 4" wide by
2%" thick, made of spruce.
The pin block is made up of five
layers of rotary cut maple, each layer
being Vs" thick and laid cross grain
to each other.
The sounding board is made up of
highest quality mountain grown spruce
to which are glued eight or more ribs
to retain the original crown.
The treble bridge is made up of
quarter sawn hard rock maple which
has been seasoned about six months
after manufactured into plate form.
The bass bridge is made up of hard
rock maple the top piece of which is
quarter sawn.
24
The plate, weighing approximately
150 lbs., is made up of best quality
using a poplar core which is covered
on each side with one ply of 1/20"
poplar crossbanding and one ply of
1 28" veneer. The action is of the dir-
ect blow type.
Keys are manufactured of white
pine or basswood covered with a high
Gulbransen
Piano in
U.S.O. Headquarters
in Alaska
grade celluloid. Hammers are double
coated using the finest quality of ham-
mer felts.
All glue used in the manufacture of
this piano is a Urea Formaldehyde
resin glue making all joints water-
proof.
During the course of manufacture
each piano receives three tuning oper-
Six Post
Back of
Gulbransen
Wartime
Piano
grey iron with sufficient steel to give
proper strength.
The strings in the treble section are
of high grade music wire graduated
to various gauges to give best tonal
quality. The bass strings are double
wound using highest grade music wire
for the core while the windings are
made up of either tin coated or cop-
per coated iron wire.
All panels of the case are five ply
ations including the final. Hammers
receive two voicing operations so that
a smooth and even tone is acquired
throughout the scale.
Arthur W. Wright Elected
Arthur W. Wright, for many years
retail sales manager of Wm. Knabe &
Co., New York, has been elected assist-
ant treasurer of the American Piano
Corp., New York.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW. APRIL, 1945