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Cornish Upright # 14837

Cornish was a mail order house. One piano they offered was this type with
special effects available on two of the four pedals. The left pedal is a
conventional soft pedal which moves the hammers closer to the strings. The
second pedal is a harpsichord sound. Then comes a guitar or banjo sound and
finally the right pedal is a normal sustain pedal.
These effects are made possible by a special rail similar to the common
dulciana or practice pedal. Along with a simple muting felt, Cornish added a
felt strip for each key which had small wooden squares glued to each side of
the end of the strip. The harpsichord effect is achieved by lowering the rail
all the way down so that the wooden squares swing into the strings from the
hammer movement. The guitar/banjo sound is achieved by lowering the rail a
little less so that the hammer drives the wood directly into the string.
Many pianos had such effects. Player pianos often had a ‘ukelele’ rail which
used brass clips in a similar way to the Cornish system. Singer uprights had
what seems to have been a small piece of sandpaper at the end of each strip
of felt. Many piano players who desired that sound but had an unequipped
piano have pushed thumbtacks into the striking portion of the hammer
resulting in a sound like you hear in saloon pianos. Probably the best
effects were achieved by the Wing & Sons pianos. See those in the collection.

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