[CAUT] durability (was funding)

[Rick.Florence at asu.edu]

Ed,

I applaud your approach to your work, but pardon the sound of my jaw hitting the
floor...23 years - in a piano faculty studio?!  I assume you are not using
"genuine parts."  What have you found to be the most durable
parts/hammers/action felt?  I take it you have been successful in convincing the
faculty (and their students) to not practice in their rooms.  Maybe I'm a little
slow, but I don't understand your key bushing statement "I bush keys with as
little caul pressure as I can, since the more pressure on the glue, the less
glue is pressed into the felt, which effectively decreases the working dimension
of the felt.  Bushings wear longer."  Are you saying you want more glue in the
felt, and this is accomplished by less pressure with the caul?

Returning to my original question, would you mind giving a budget amount you are
working with annually in relation to the replacement value of your inventory? 
The reason I asked this in the first place is I am preparing a funding request
to take us to the 10% ratio and am looking for any ammunition I can find.  I
fear I may have to sell it as a "setting the standard" argument rather than
using peer institution pressure.

Thanks,

Rick

Quoting A440A at aol.com:

> Inre Vanderbilt, Joel writes:
> 
> << I read this to mean that you may be doing well.
> The Wall Street Journal article this week lead me
> to believe your Chancellor is filling the coffers
> quite well.>>
> 
>     Yes, we are well financed.  Of late, Martha Ingram donated $
> 250,000,000 
> to Vanderbilt, so Blair School of Music got a new concert hall, new D,
> new 
> building wing, etc.  
>      One thing that helps is that we are using a lot of pianos that I
> began 
> restoring in the early 1980's.  The work was done in accordance to the
> 
> procedures I learned from David Betts and Bill Garlick, and time has
> proven the 
> durability of their techniques.  This makes it easier to sell the value
> of 
> rebuilding vs. loaner or trading in old pianos for new.  
>      One of our senior piano faculty is using an M that was done in 1983
> and 
> is still performing well, (albeit getting a little light and brassy). 
> That 
> action job was billed at $ 1750 at the time, so the last 23 years of use
> seems 
> like a bargain.  The administration now accepts that $9,500 for a
> complete new 
> action will also be seen as a bargain in 23 more years, so they are
> happy to 
> fund that rather than spend $ 50,000 for a new piano!  
>      Refusing to cut corners, using the best materials available, and
> putting 
> in the time to do the best work requires a little faith on the front
> end, but 
> after standing the test of time, proves to be the best support for
> funding 
> top-dollar work that I can find.  
>      There are a lot of things that go into it: ie, damper wires that
> are not 
> only polished, but aligned so that they don't press into the guide
> bushings, 
> insures that the damper felt is going to stay in the same travel and the
> felt 
> lasts longer.   NEVER pushing a mute into a trichord without lifting the
> 
> wedges helps longevity, too.  (how many techs always lift the damper out
> of the way 
> before moving the mute through the wound trichords on a D? This is 
> important!)   Proper alignment of the underlevers to key-end felt is
> crucial to 
> durability.  
>      Stopping the damper pedal travel via felt blocks on the trapwork
> levers 
> directly over the pedal rods prevents someone's foot force from finding
> its 
> way to the upstop rail. Same goes for the sostenuto; that intermediate
> lever can 
> be broken if the original felt block by the pitman is made to take the
> full 
> force of the pedal, I like to stop it against the keybed directly over
> the 
> pedal rod, too.  Una corda is often tricky, there are often cut-out
> recesses under 
> there, but a leather or hard felt stop on the top of the shift lever can
> 
> fashioned. This prevents the keyframe contact point from gradually
> getting crushed 
> by the pedal jamming it against the stop screw.  
>     I think fastidious traveling of the shanks improves the durability
> of the 
> pinning,( I pin a little firmer on school pianos).   Making sure there
> is no 
> lost motion between jack and knuckle allows the knuckle to stay round
> for 
> longer periods of time.  Coordinating the blow,let-off, and keydip to
> prevent the 
> jack from jamming allows the let-off punchings to live longer.  Firm
> jack 
> pinning, (4-5 grams) doesn't slow repetition down at all, but prevents
> jacks from 
> going off-center with all the attendant lopsided wear and failure that
> ensues. 
>  I use hide glue because I will need to replace parts in the future and
> it 
> makes it soooo easy.  
>    Needling sufficient resilience into the hammers seems to let them
> live 
> longer as opposed to leaving them so hard that all of the impact force
> is 
> concentrated in the strike zone, causing a more rapid erosion of the
> felt.  Hammer 
> tails don't need to be roughened if they are cut squarely on a 3" radius
> and the 
> back-checks are properly angled. I have back-checks from the 1930's in
> this 
> school that are just fine, while I have seen poorly adjusted new ones
> wear out 
> in 10 years of heavy use.  It helps to taper tails as little as
> possible,too. 
>    Polished and nick-free front pins greatly increase key bushing life. 
> HOW 
> can the Steinway factory have let so many of these pins be damaged in
> the 
> spacing process?  The bushings will last for about the warranty period,
> then you 
> have a sloppy keyboard. I bush keys with as little caul pressure as I
> can, 
> since the more pressure on the glue, the less glue is pressed into the
> felt, which 
> effectively decreases the working dimension of the felt.  Bushings wear
> 
> longer .  
> ETC, ETC......... There is a way to build actions so that they last.  It
> 
> takes longer and costs a little more, but I want every action I rebuild
> to go out 
> there as advertising for my work.  I live with almost all of my rebuilds
> for 
> decades, so I want them to be as maintenance-free as possible. It frees
> up 
> budgets to cover more pianos.    
> Regards,   
> 
> Ed Foote RPT 
> http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>  
> 



________________
Rick Florence
Piano Technician
Arizona State University, School of Music