Consoles

Consoles, claviers, keyboards – whatever you want to call them, we at B. A. Sunderlin strive to provide a design for professional consoles that strikes a balance between classic styling with contemporary performance and hardware. Based on the reliable English design principle utilizing such features as a solid point-to-point roller bar transmission, radial and concave pedal alignment, piano-style key pivots, and straightforward wood-to-metal fitment, our consoles provide a look and feel that is both familiar but built for today’s players that expect the most from their instruments.

All pivoting rod connections use sealed ball and socket joints. This helps to minimize friction and quiets the console. Pedals utilize a fully adjustable rank of phosphor bronze flat coil torsion springs that can be calibrated to each player. Both keys and pedals are bushed in their spreaders with felt inserts that can easily be replaced for continued maintenance. Key and pedal spreader felts are also of medium hardness, and we always use neoprene under the bottom pocket felts. Different rubbers, and felts can be used upon request. All pedals and keys are felt cushioned in their pivots for a maintenance-free, nearly frictionless, joint that has been used in traditional English consoles for nearly 100 years. All steel fabrication is TIG welded in stainless steel and is finished bright and brushed. Paint won’t flake, metal won’t rust. All custom hardware is precision CNC machined right here in our facility. All keys are made in hard sugar maple with all other elements made standard in red oak. All lumber is hand-selected, kiln-dried, and domestically sourced. Of course, all standard designs will be made to the 2006 WCF standard.

Custom designs, carvings, decorations, wood selection, and alternative standards are available upon request as are professional practice instruments. We love to treat every installation differently and take pride in thinking about every instrument being unique!

Do not be fooled by other companies in the US that claim to be a bell foundry. These companies are most often middlemen who will try to sell foreign bells. The international shipping fees, customs fees and duties, as well as their mark up, drastically inflates their bottom line. Why would you pay for more when traditionally made, harmonically tuned, bells can be made right here in the United States?

We conduct ourselves in a fair and transparent manner. We are campanologists and craftspeople; committed to deliver the best.

We continue our American craft legacy by preserving a centuries-old art using traditional materials. These materials: clay, sand, horse dung and hair are mixed in the correct proportions in order to make molding loam. This high refractory mud is used to build each segment of the mold by hand. Each layer is meticulously built to accommodate the next and takes time to do properly. Once made the interior (core) and the exterior (cope) are sleeked in graphite and are closed together and buried in the pit in preparation for casting.

All of our bells are made from Bell Metal, a High-Tin bronze that consists of at least 80% Copper and 20% Tin. All of our metals are specially alloyed from licensed vendors and distributors. Old bells may also be used to supplement the charge of metal in the creation of new bells. Once cast, our bells are left to cool completely in the pit. Slow cooling is advantageous to produce the finest crystalline structure in the resulting casting. This, we feel, produces the most refined and balanced overall timbre of our bells.