Dennis, I've been out of town for a few days on spring break, so excuse me for chiming in a little late. I've rebuilt 3 Bechsteins with this sort of action, and did the sort of modification you mention on the first one. It was a long time ago (about 1977) and a lot has happened since then, including (hopefully) improvement in my own skills and standards. As I recall the blocks I installed were about 3/4" high. I can't believe that raising the capstans that much doesn't significantly change the arc of travel. In those days the new Renner parts weren't readily available, so I modified the old wippens by filling the wippen heal and applying a cushion. My recollection of the results is that they were no better than "OK". In the other two I restored the original arrangement and installed new shanks and hammers. They are also OK, but the regulation is unstable and the actions are quite noisy (in spite of many hours spent tracking down and eliminating clicks). Another consideration today is that Renner no longer makes the Schwander wippen. As with all action parts that have been in production for a long time, the dimensions of the Schwander wippens are a little different in different vintages. The dimensions of the parts that Renner USA provides as replacements for the Schwander wippens (part #913010) might be quite different from your originals. I believe that the best fix for this sort of piano today would be to start over with all new action, keys and keyframe. This would require lowering the string height about 1 cm with all of the other related changes. I've quoted this job, but not had a taker. Regards, Bob Hohf, RPT Editor, Piano Technicians Journal voice: 262-495-8058 fax: 262-495-2983 Editor@ptg.org ps No, I don't want the job. > > > Thanks for all the imput. These whippens are in bad shape, so it's not an > easy call, but we like to do what we can for appreciative, serious > customers. I am inclined to decline the job entirely at the moment, as it > was also (rebuilt) not so long ago and left with plenty of other problems > as well. I was just wondering if anyone had tried to do a modification > like that, and if so, how it went. Let me know if you want the job. > Ha.... > > Sometimes it's a hard call to know when enough is enough, and harder still > to break the news. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm just not that interested in > trying to patch up really old parts on which I can't guarantee > satisfaction. > > > Dennis Johnson >
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