Ron; " He then drew me a picture showing the curved felt punchings and explained that it was caused bacuase the keys rock in an arch rather than on a pivot point like a traditional action. " "Another good technician told me that this is false and that the Steinway is simply a different design and that both actions rock in an arch." " Both technicians are well respected in the PTG at the highest levels and have names for themselves. *Who is right?"* Ron in my opinion both are right and neither are right, but the differences we are talking about are insignificant; rather like whether cloth dyed a color is thicker than undyed cloth from the same bolt of material. Keys on punchings 'tend to rock forward on the front of the punching and keys on bearings tend to rock forward on the bearing itself. Notice I said rock and not pivot, as pivot denotes a fixed point and there is no fixed point between a key and the balance rail pin. I have often wondered what long term effects the bearings have on the keys but have never come to any conclusion other than I didn't know. I just returned a 35 year S&S 'M' with bearings that had no pulley motion in the keys, and this piano was/is played a lot. So go figure. Jim Bryant (FL)
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