Collective Wisdom-- Over the past few months I have been working on a friend's smallish grand, a Baldwin model ST. The thing is in almost perfect physical shape except for the strings, which were rusted and many broken. I have two small questions for the group: 1. When I questioned my mentor, a longtime local piano tech, about installing a Dampp-Chaser system, his instant response was "No way; not in this area!" We are in the San Francisco Bay Area, whcih CAN be dampish, depending on where you live. The Baldwin's strings were badly rusted, along with the tuning pins. Perhaps my buddy has only had trouble with the equipment, the manufacturer, or the installation procedure. I have no idea, and have had no experience with these popular systems. Any ideas or guidelines? (Incidentally, the piano has since been restrung.) 2. The piano's owner tells me that another tech "rebuilt" the action, but does not remember exactly what was done. I've seen evidence of hammer sanding (fluff still inside the action), and the keydip was apparently set too shallow (according to factory specs). I cannot see any evidence of hammers being replaced, but after we reinstalled the action two or three of the top hammers were hanging up. They were so far in that the hammer heads were striking the damper rail! To get them to clear I've had to move the action so far forward that the adjustable key blocks are at their limit and the key fronts are grazing the keyslip, unless we leave it loose. This is bad. I suppose what I should next do is measure the strike point for the upper two octaves or so and see wnere they should be, using the 1/7 rule as a guide. Is rehanging the hammers the only solution? And how might this condition have been created? I'm no neophyte but this really has me puzzled. Thanks for anyone's suggestions or observations. Cheers, Dave Talcott
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