Stranglers keyboard on the Repair Shop tonight

[Nail Soup]

An original keyboard played on early Stranglers hits by Dave Greenfield is repaired in the Repair Shop BBC1.
It was given as a gift to the new keyboard player, Toby, who is a massive fan of Dave's even before joining the band.
I believe it is Toby who takes it in.

 

Well worth a watch for any Stranglers fans or those with an interest in vintage keyboards.

[Reggaebass]

Just watching it now, quite interesting 

[Downunderwonder]

We get the show here but most likely some months or years later.

[nikon F]

just watched it,well worth a look , Sranglers fan or not. The Repair Shop on bbc i player series 15 episode 2 ,,,with the added bonus that you can skip past all the other bits you might not want to see.

[wateroftyne]

I don’t think I can ever watch that show again after they murdered that old Jazz bass.

[Reggaebass]

23 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

I don’t think I can ever watch that show again after they murdered that old Jazz bass.

The keyboard one is nowhere as painful 

[cetera]

Toby is an ex-colleague of my Wife and good friend of us both. He's so thrilled to own that keyboard..... and it was lovely to see it brought back to life on Repair Shop!

 

[Woodinblack]

I thought it was repaired really well, but then the guy is an organ repairer. I never saw the jazz bass, wasn't it hot chocolate? Still, plenty of jazzes around!

Sort of coincidently as last week I had watched a whole video of a rhodes bass piano being serviced, which was way more interesting than I expected.

[steantval]

Many years ago our rock covers band used to play at the Rose and Crown in the village of Somersham in Cambridgeshire, Dave Greenfield lived in the big house opposite, right in the centre of the village, on two occasions he was in the pub watching us play, both times he stayed until we finished and had a chat with us while we were packing away, nice chap, passed away too early.

[BassTractor]

When will they be repairing JJ's speaker cones? 🙃

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

7 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

I don’t think I can ever watch that show again after they murdered that old Jazz bass.

The hot chocolate one? The luthier that did that is based a short walk from me in Sutton, South London. I took a banjo to him once for some work, but if any of my basses need anything done I'll only them to the Gallery in Camden.

[paul_5]

I once took a banjo to a local luthier shortly before he died, and he snapped it in half and burnt the pieces. 
 

God, I miss him.

[Beer of the Bass]

Which of his keyboards is it? The Hohner Cembalet was the most unusual one in his setup, and not nearly as straightforward as the others for documentation or parts availability. I have an old Pianet N that's the cousin of it (same reeds and pickup system, different plucking method), so chances are I'd find that an interesting watch. 

[Woodinblack]

This one:

 

[bass_dinger]

The Strangler's keyboard.   Old 'n Brown... 

 

And, at 12'10" a far better Golden Brown reference. 

 

Edited Thursday at 23:32 by bass_dinger

[tauzero]

Lovely piece of work. I assume that either the reeds have locators so they are perfectly placed, or they didn't want to show the 200 hours of tuning them all up. Very ingenious cutter to make the rubbers, that must have been quite a task though to make 61 of them.

[SteveK]

My only real gripe with the repair of Dave Greenfield's old keyboard was that coat of varnish. They've done this before with old furniture when the owner wants to keep the scrapes and knocks, the character - but out comes the varnish! As soon as I see a brush and pot of varnish, I'm internally shouting, "NOOOOOOOO!"

[BigRedX]

I did wonder about the tuning. IIRC one of the competing electro-mechanical pianos from that era was tuned by adding or removing solder from the tines.

 

I also wonder if they added some internal bracing at the corners to hold the case together without changing the external appearance. It certainly looked as though it could do with some.

 

And agreed with the varnish. That glossy finish was nasty. Isn't there something less intrusive available? Even a matt varnish would have been better than shellac.

Edited 13 hours ago by BigRedX

[madshadows]

Really enjoyed the restoration video, I thought it look and sounded great afterwards  

 

John 😎 

[BassTractor]

10 hours ago, BigRedX said:

IIRC one of the competing electro-mechanical pianos from that era was tuned by adding or removing solder from the tines.

Yeah, at least the Wurlitzer was like that. Add solder with your soldering iron, and if necessary remove some of that again with a file.
The Rhodes OTOH had small, moveable springs (spiral type) near the tines' ends.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by BassTractor

[Pea Turgh]

I loved that.  Regret selling my pianet now!

[Beer of the Bass]

22 hours ago, tauzero said:

Lovely piece of work. I assume that either the reeds have locators so they are perfectly placed, or they didn't want to show the 200 hours of tuning them all up. Very ingenious cutter to make the rubbers, that must have been quite a task though to make 61 of them.

 

I'm fairly sure the Cembalet is the same type of reeds as my Pianet of the same era. If you have to remove and re-mount one they tend to keep their tuning very well, they're held with a single flat headed machine screw through a hole in the reed, with quite close tolerances. 

New reeds are tuned by filing either at the free end to reduce the mass and raise the pitch, or across the flex point by the screw end, which reduces the stiffness and lowers the pitch. But the factory tuning is usual good for the life of the instrument. 

 

Edit; I hadn't had time to watch through video earlier, they are a bit different than the Pianet reeds, having no hole. Though I presume if they're inserted to the correct depth they should retain the tuning, and it looks like the reed block is closed at the back so they may just butt up to the end before the screws are tightened. 

Edited 37 minutes ago by Beer of the Bass