Thank you David. I've always had to think in a way that feels intuitively backwards to get this method right in my mind. Seems like capstans would be best used for fine adjustment of dampers... if you were going to use them in the first place. And I am still not convinced that timing could not be for all practical purposes just as easily and evenly set without capstans in the first place... but they claim this results in the most effective way of getting at both. The bit that makes perfect sense to me tho is the bit about changes in damper seating on strings with time. Any change there will affect both timing and simultaneous tray lift, but adjustment of the capstan to compensate only fixes the tray lift. The picture I supplied by the way is taken of a C7 which has been around for a while and serviced by any number of techs. If you notice the capstans are all over the place level wise and timing on this instrument is quite uneven. The capstans effect timing in a kind of reverse sense... not directly but by letting the tech address tray problems alone when both tray and timing uneveness need addressing. Cheers RicB I think I understand the confusion. While the capstans are used to set the lever height, they do not themselves have anything to do with damper timing with respect to key lift. It seems like a lot of extra work. Just use the Spurlock damper ht jig (or something similar) for setting the levers and then adjust the capstans for the tray lift. Eliminates a lot of useless procedures. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com
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