One trick to change ratio without moving capstans is to relocate the stack. In this case, investigate if the stack can move forwards 3mm or so. The key frame would have to relocate back by the same amount to maintain strike point. I've relocated the stack on many Steinways resulting in improved action performance. This works well if you notice that the shanks are no centered over the rest felts in the bass and tenor. I'm doing it on a Samick now and posted results a while ago on another Asian action. The problem with the current Samick is high friction. As posted before, I'm relocating the knuckles back to 18mm and moved the stack back 2.5mm. The action had plenty of room to move forwards but what also helped in this is that the hammers are hung with an extreme back angle and understriking. I'm also pulling them off from the tenor/treble break and hanging them 90 degrees. This moves the strike point forwards which allows for more back movement of the stack than forwards movement of the action. Follow that? What I had to do first was to stabilize the action registering. The cheek blocks had a lot of fore and aft play. I replaced the thin dowels in the blocks with 3/8" dowels and now they are solid. SO today, I'll be giving the shanks the ol' one-two and taking two grands to their demise. All in a day's work. -- Regards, Jon Page
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