7/6/2012 - Broken Elbows
I went to tune a piano in Athens, GA today that had broken elbows.
No, I am not talking about a piano that had been visited by loan sharks or mafia hit men. What I am referring to is a piano part that is found only in spinet piano actions. The elbow in a spinet action is found on all 88 key/hammer assemblies and is located below the keyboard. They are easily seen and accessed by removing the knee board and by looking into the piano while sitting on the floor. Elbows can be made of either wood (good) or plastic (not so good) and look just like a human elbow that is bent at a 90 degree angle.
Broken elbows are easily diagnosed on a spinet piano when you see keys that are resting in the down position, as if someone had played them and they never returned back to their original height. Plastic elbows that were made for spinet actions 50-60 years ago are notorious for deteriorating and becoming fragile and brittle to the point that they can break with very little pressure applied from playing the keys. Once a plastic elbow is broken, the link from the key to hammer is interrupted and that particular key will no longer cause the hammer to strike its corresponding string.
In most cases, if one elbow has broken, then it is only a matter of time before many others will follow suit. Therefore, it only makes sense to replace all 88 elbows at the same time even if only one or a few are presently broken. This job usually takes 3-4 hours if performed by an experience piano technician and will wind up costing considerably more than if replacing only the affected elbows. But once done, it is a permanent repair that will not need to be repeated during the remaining life expectancy of the piano. So, if this is the only issue with a particular piano, then it usually is worthwhile to have your piano technician to replace all 88 elbows in one visit (make sure he/she knows in advance that this may be an issue before they arrive to tune). In the end, this will be much less frustrating than to replace just the current broken elbows only to have others break shortly after your technician leaves your house.
I went to tune a piano in Athens, GA today that had broken elbows.
No, I am not talking about a piano that had been visited by loan sharks or mafia hit men. What I am referring to is a piano part that is found only in spinet piano actions. The elbow in a spinet action is found on all 88 key/hammer assemblies and is located below the keyboard. They are easily seen and accessed by removing the knee board and by looking into the piano while sitting on the floor. Elbows can be made of either wood (good) or plastic (not so good) and look just like a human elbow that is bent at a 90 degree angle.
Broken elbows are easily diagnosed on a spinet piano when you see keys that are resting in the down position, as if someone had played them and they never returned back to their original height. Plastic elbows that were made for spinet actions 50-60 years ago are notorious for deteriorating and becoming fragile and brittle to the point that they can break with very little pressure applied from playing the keys. Once a plastic elbow is broken, the link from the key to hammer is interrupted and that particular key will no longer cause the hammer to strike its corresponding string.
In most cases, if one elbow has broken, then it is only a matter of time before many others will follow suit. Therefore, it only makes sense to replace all 88 elbows at the same time even if only one or a few are presently broken. This job usually takes 3-4 hours if performed by an experience piano technician and will wind up costing considerably more than if replacing only the affected elbows. But once done, it is a permanent repair that will not need to be repeated during the remaining life expectancy of the piano. So, if this is the only issue with a particular piano, then it usually is worthwhile to have your piano technician to replace all 88 elbows in one visit (make sure he/she knows in advance that this may be an issue before they arrive to tune). In the end, this will be much less frustrating than to replace just the current broken elbows only to have others break shortly after your technician leaves your house.
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