Hammer travelling

[DBHersh@aol.com]

Hello everyone and Happy Holidays,
   I have a question about prepping new Steinway Grands. I would appreciate
any input and thank you in advance. I have prepped alot of new Steinways,
especially in the last year. One thing I have noticed is the hammer
travelling is usually pretty good in the bass and two treble sections but it
is always quite a bit off (not travelling straight) in the tenor section. My
question is; does Steinway purposely travel the hammers for spacing reasons?
At first I thought it was just a mistake at the factory but the fact that it
is consistently in the tenor makes me wonder if it isn't done deliberately.
If this is the case than I don't think it is a very good policy. To me it
seems like this would have a negative effect on the power of the stroke to
the string. It just makes me wonder because often when I see one travelling
in one direction or the other there is either paper on both sides of the
flange or on the wrong side. Have any of you expierienced this problem? These
are new pianos, 528,000 to 532,000 serial number or there about. When I
correct the travel I don't have any problem spacing the hammers to Steinway's
philosophy. It seems like someone on pianotech mentioned this the other day.
I hope I'm not rehashing too much. I'm going to contact Micheal Mohr but
thought I would throw it out to pianotech first. Some piano mfr.'s go to
great lengths to recommend spending alot of time getting the hammers
travelling very straight, all of them.

Doug Hershberger, RPT   *<:-)