Knights Piano

mikerp · Post by **mikerp** » 15 Jan 2006, 00:41

Hi,

I am about to buy a Knights piano and pay Ł300.... I would like to know whether this is good value. I think it is but would love to know for someone who knows about these things. The advert is below... Can you help to see if I am paying over the odds?
Cheers MIKE

Upright Mahogany Piano by Knight (with original late-1930's sales leaflet)

Keys all pristine condition, completely in tact with no chips this piano has a beautiful tone

Small Iron Frame Piano - 7 Octaves

Height 3 foot 4 inches (approx 102 cm)

Width 4 foot 5 inches (approx 135 cm)

Depth 1 foot 9 inches (approx 54 cm)

Double weight felt hammer gives this piano a richness of tone and long wear. It has a short hammer shank which gives greater power of tone and it's short check eliminates whip giving excellent control of touch. The keyboard is perfectly balanced and has a light easy touch - giving 850 repetitions per minute.

This piano has been well looked after and is in very good condition as shown in the photos - although please bear in mind it is not absolutely pristine as it dates back to the 1930s and has been regularly played over the years

PianoGuy · Post by **PianoGuy** » 15 Jan 2006, 01:42

A fair price, especially with the sales leaflet, but get it checked over by a qualified blah... blah.....

It's an early example of the piano which was to become the Knight K10; a revolutionary upright design which was one of the first pianos to have a frame with a cast-in lip all the way around the edge instead of simply a flat plate. This gave it enormous strength in compression (indeed the earliest examples were labelled "Knight, patent compression frame") which meant that the treble break bar could be eliminated. This bar is part of the iron frame and in most pianos is crucial for frame strength; it is visible if you look inside a piano, and runs parallel with the strings about two thirds the distance from left to right as viewed from the front. Unfortunately, whilst needed for strength, it means that often the strings either side of it have a poor tone, which was Knight's reason for designing it out.

There's often a downside to clever design in pianos, and early Knight frames simply went bang and broke; usually loudly, at the dead of night waking the household. It's probably fair to say that if it's still OK after all these years it'll probably survive a few more. The tuning planks on early versions are often susceptible to cracking, so make sure you talk tho the person who last tuned it and get his/her impression of the tightness of tuning pins.

The basic design was retained from the '30s right through to 2003 when the last examples were made at the Whelpdale factory, so you're buying an early version of a true British classic, even if it has a few foibles.

850 repetitions a minute is a bit ambitious though, even if you can play that fast!!

PG

mikerp · Post by **mikerp** » 16 Jan 2006, 01:34

PG[/quote][quote]Thanks for your reply... I have found out it is infact a 1938 K6 piano and after putting in the serial number it satates that it was made after 1998 however, the old faded seial number states 10/11/38 and description is Knight K6. Any help with this one would be greatly appreciated
Cheers MIKE

PianoGuy · Post by **PianoGuy** » 16 Jan 2006, 07:05

You're probably looking at a dealer's stock number.

The serial number on an old Knight is on the soundboard behind the iron frame somewhere in the bottom right hand quarter. You'll need to remove the bottom door of the piano (a couple of clips will need to be unclipped, so it's a 2-second job) and look inside.