need ideas (follow-up)

kam544@flash.net kam544@flash.net
Thu Apr 12 22:27 MDT 2001


>...I'm going to take three pieces of hard rock
>maple 1' x 4" x 57 1/4", locate them evenly
>spaced from top to bottom and join the five
>back posts together.  I feel confident this will make a remarkable change
>in the stability...
>Keith McGavern...

Dear Caut,

Well, the deed is done.  However, I could not find hard rock maple locally,
so ended up using Red Oak pieces.  Also, the size of the pieces ended up
being 1" x 3" x 57".

Results:  Not 100%, but definite significant improvement with room to make
it 100%.

Note: Mark Cramer's additional comments and suggestions might be an even
better idea overall from what I did, but I wanted to follow through with my
gut feeling.

Here's the scenerio: I mounted two of the boards perpendicular to the
backposts below the handlea thinking for some reason this would be the area
most affected.  But upon reading two notes, one in the upper bass, one in
the lower tenor, with the Reyburn CyberTuner there was more variance in
readings when moving the piano in the classroom than I deemed acceptable.

So I mounted the third piece perpendicular to the backposts midway between
the handles and the top of the backposts.  *This* made a considerable
improvement over the two boards below the handles.  (I did move the piano
about with reckless abandon   :-)

This leads me to believe that maybe putting the support from the handles up
would actually make a better improvement than below the handles.  I'll try
this approach next time if I do it on another piano.

As for this particular 1998 U1, I will either move one of the lower pieces
up, or add a fourth piece between the two pieces and the one piece to take
care of the remaining variance.

Trust this experience will help someone down the road like it helped me.

Thank you one and all.

Keith McGavern
Registered Piano Technician
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Piano Technicians Guild
USA





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