A Console Action Surprise
Most upright and grand pianos we service on a day to day basis have generally the same action design. When it comes to uprights, they all tend to have a similar design despite the height of the piano. The spinet piano action is different in that it has the drop action, but it’s main components and how they are serviced is still familiar.
In the 1940’s and 50’s there was an action and keyboard maker called Woods & Brooks that built the 90 degree Inverted Direct-Blow console action. It was just my luck that I came across one of these today. A 1940s Mueller & Haines console with an action mechanism I had never come across before. The jack runs horizontally instead of vertically and the damper levers actually sit below the whippen rail. Some have commented that the design is a hybrid of a grand and upright action. Thankfully I was able to figure out and work with this unusual action and still complete the service for the customer.
My best guess as to why this design was introduced in the first place was to try to develop the most compact action while still being able to have a direct blow action. The size of the piano was similar to a spinet size but was still able to be considered a console. Ultimately spinets ended up taking off a lot more with manufacturers and were predominantly made from the 1940s-80s/90s as the most compact piano by height. I find it fascinating that in our line of work, no matter how much experience and different kind of pianos we have seen before we can still be surprised by some experimental design we haven’t come across before.
