Re-imagining a 1931 Knabe Butterfly Grand – Part 1
- June 23rd, 2012
- By James Musselwhite
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Well, here we go, re-imagining again.
Why “re-imagining”? Because this piano has two faults which I am going to correct.
1) It was built to be a true butterfly, but, because of the onset of the depression, they cheapened out a bit, and didn’t add the hinge in the wings. It was intended to be that way though, so that’s what I’m going to do.
2) It was “Rebuilt” (and I use that term VERY loosely) by a previous (ahem) handy man, who not only did things wrong, he did them so wrong that the piano probably couldn’t be tuned when he was done. He made a new pinblock, but not only shaped it completely incorrectly, but drilled all the tuning pin holes at a reverse angle (more on this later).
So, back to the drawing board with this project.
And now… some pictures.
Before
From the front.




