Hello All,  After learning that I'm in the process of getting a player
piano back into operating condition (I won't open up the issue of
restoring, rebuilding, etc., here I hope), my neighbor asked if I would
give her my opinion on a piano that had been donated to a senior
citizen's group that 'didn't work'.

The trouble, as near as she knew, was that the 'keys didn't work'.
Having some spare time, and a lot of curiosity,  I agreed and became
acquainted with a piano with a nameplate that said:  Lindner, Shannon,
Ireland.  The piano is about 38 inches high.

A brief inspection of the _all plastic_ keys (something I had never
encountered before) easily identified the problem.  The keys, instead
of having a little hole in them around the center of the key for the
balance rail pin  which I had expected, had a plastic 'clip' that
slipped into a metal U-shaped rail that provided the fulcrum for the
keys.  Many of these plastic clips were broken, and as one would
expect, the keys would not operate as they should.

How so many of these clips got broken is a mystery.  It almost looks
as if it took malicious indent very careless handling to cause the
broad extent of the damage to the many key clips.

After seeing how the keys were made, I thought it would be interesting
to see how the rest of the piano was constructed, and found some new
'firsts' for me.  (This gives some idea of my limitation of knowledge
about piano construction.)  I had never seen a piano without the heavy
(about 4 inch by 4 inch) posts in the back that support the frame, nor
had I seen a piano that did not have a cast frame.  The frame to which
the strings are attached appears to be welded channeling.

I checked the Pierce Piano Atlas (10th edition) and the listing for
LIndner refers one to 'see Rippon, Holland'.  The serial number of the
piano is #41040, and under the Rippon heading it appears the piano was
manufactured in 1974.  The last serial number given for the Rippon
pianos is 1987, so I assume the company was taken over by another or
has gone out of business.

I was wondering if anyone could provide any other information on this
piano.  In particular, I would be interested to know if it is possible
to obtain the plastic clips to repair the keys, or if a completely new
set of keys for the piano could be purchased.  I guess another possi-
bility is to replace the metal U-channel that is used for the key
balance rail and the original _all plastic_ keys with a wood balance
rail (with pins) and a whole new set of keys.  But that would be a
pretty major job I suspect.

Because of the construction, I would have to conclude that this piano
was a fairly inexpensive one, and one would not want to spend much to
have it repaired, so I doubt if replacing the balance rail is a cost
effective option.

I'd appreciate any comments and suggestions.

Dale C. Houser