[CAUT] Tightening Screws as part of regular maintenance

[Allen Wright]

David,

I'm surprised that you resisted the temptation to give us a grand  
total of all the screws you found in the piano! (Or at least, a nice 
rounded off figure that we can easily remember, and impress our clients 
with). I doubt if there are many of us piano technicians  who don't 
have more than a touch of the compulsive (at least the ones that keep 
at it for many years) - so please, put your calculator to work and save 
us the trouble, since you've stirred up these muddy waters...:)

Sincerely,

Allen Wright, RPT
Cincinnati, Ohio


On Wednesday, September 15, 2004, at 07:28  PM, David Vanderhoofven 
wrote:

> Dear Friends,
>
> About a month ago I was doing a prep on an older Kawai KG-2A grand 
> piano and tightened all of the bolts and screws on the piano.  Just 
> for fun I counted all of the screws and bolts I tightened, probably 
> because I am compulsive!  I realize this may be a big waste of your 
> time, but I do have a few questions at the end.
>
> There are a bunch of screws on a grand piano!  I think you could 
> probably break it down into 3 categories.
>
> 1.  Case (Pinblock, Plate, Bench, hinge and hardware screws and bolts. 
>  This would be all of the bolts and screws that are accessible without 
> getting on your hands and knees or without opening up the action).
>
> 2.  Action Screws (Action, keyframe, spring and action cavity screws.  
> Including all screws accessible inside the action cavity).
>
> 3.  Undercarriage Screws (Leg, Lyre, trapwork, etc.  All of the bolts 
> and screws underneath the piano)
>
> Here for your amazement and amusement is a list of the screws I 
> tightened.
>
> 1.  Case
> Bench - 4 bolts and 32 screws
> Music Desk - 62 screws
> Top Lid long hinge - 44 screws
> Lid log - 8 screws
> Side hinges on top lid - 18 screws
> Lid prop cups - 3 screws
> lid prop hardware - 4 screws
> Music desk guides (on inner rim of piano) - 6 screws
> Through plate into stretcher - 3 screws
> plate web - 23 screws
> plate perimeter  - 7 screws
>
> 2.  Action
> leg plates, spring, and key cover hardware - 25 screws
> key upstop rail - 4 screws
> Damper underlever flange - 69 screws
> Damper tray - 4 screws
> hammer flange - 88 screws
> wippen flange - 88 screws
> action brackets - 10 screws
> Action rails - 20 screws
> hammer rebound rail - 10  screws and nuts
> underside of keyframe - 17 screws
>
> 3..  Undercarriage
> Rear leg plate - 8 screws
> Lyre braces and lyre - 12
> Trapwork - 12 screws
> Keybed - 22 screws
> leg and lyre bolts - 8 bolts
> keycover - 6 screws
> cheek blocks - 4 screws
> keyslip - 15 screws
>
> It makes sense to me that if I keep the screws tight it will benefit 
> the piano by eliminating noise, improving tone and volume, keeping 
> parts aligned and keeping the piano from falling apart.
>
> 1.  How critical is it to tighten all of these screws?
> I would guess that on a concert grand, you would do all of this at 
> least once a year, but for other pianos it may not be as important 
> (unless the customer wants to pay for it).  And on a Winter spinet it 
> would never get done because the piano never gets tuned anyway, let 
> alone any cleaning or tightening!
>
> 2.  Does anyone keep track of this for the pianos you service?  For a 
> school with many pianos, it would be easy to forget which pianos you 
> tightened and which pianos still need tightening.  I am thinking of 
> making a list of all the pianos and each time I tune, picking an area 
> and tightening all the screws in one area, such as tightening all case 
> screws.  Then next time, I will see on the list that I need to tighten 
> the action screws.  And eventually all the undercarriage screws would 
> be tightened.  This would make sure that the work gets done on every 
> piano on a rotating basis.
>
> Just rambling thoughts!  Have a nice day
>
> David Vanderhoofven
> Registered Piano Technician
>
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