[CAUT] lighter touchweight

[David Love]

In that case moving the stack was clearly the right choice.  My typical
encounters on Steinways are not like that, however.  Strike points are often
correct or, if anything, need to be moved forward, capstan alignments are
uniform, keyslips are already uncomfortably close to the keyframe,
backchecks have barely enough clearance from the sostenuto rod and
frequently the magic line between key encompassing key front, capstan and
wippen center can be improved.  Moving the capstan and, if necessary,
altering wippen heel height in those cases is a better choice, in my view.
Each situation should be analyzed individually and decisions made
accordingly.  

In the case of the Baldwin, which is where this post originated, the ones
I've encountered from that period are generally set up well in terms of
alignment, strike point etc.  However, they do tend to have a very high key
ratio which contributes to the leverage being high overall and with
mismatched SWs that create a heavyish action with high front weights.  I've
had predictable success on many of these by making a simple capstan move
allowing me to rebalance the action to a lighter BW and remove lead.  The
job can certainly be done in much less than six hours using epoxy mixed with
light filleting blend and squeezed through a glue applicator to fill old
holes.  If you are cutting plugs it takes a lot longer.  


David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jon
Page
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 4:01 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] lighter touchweight

How about this one:
Lots of room between front of keys and keyslip. New hammers on new shanks
(17 mm knuckle radius), standard shank length, top treble tone dead.
Keyframe
backed into dags, can't slide back to ascertain Strike Point.  Lift 
treble frame
registering pin with screw driver to tilt the hammer back: improves tone.

Ok, the Strike Point (SP) is too far forwards.

Can't slide the frame back unless I remove material from the back 
edge of the frame
but the sharps are already precariously close to the fall board. Hmmmm...
lots of room at the fro=nt of the keys...

So, pull the hammers and set further out on the shanks? Install new h/s/f ?

Look at the stack.  The capstans are center in the treble and muchly rear
of center of the cushions in the bass.  What's that doing for the ratio?

Solution, move the stack back such that the capstan is situated at 
the same position
on the cushion bass -to-treble, move keyframe forwards a sufficient 
amount to tweak
treble SP. The stack moves back a little in the treble and a lot in the
bass.
Hammers are no longer raked over missing the centers of the ends of 
the wippens.
Jacks are not buried into the rep stop felts. (also had shim the 
whole stack towards the bass the thickness of veneer).

BTW, this is a Hamburg B.

Assume nothing.  I don't care how many RPT's it previously went through.
-- 

Regards,

Jon Page