Grand Action Work (Help)

[Keith A. McGavern]

>To get to my question: what are some practical steps I can take in the
>course of a routine Steinway (for instance) grand action rebuilding to
>minimize touch weight, repetition, and other common problems, in cases where
>there are restraints in resources (i.e. technician skills, time, money,
>etc.)? In other words, in situations more reflective of the real world.
>(This is not to deny the importance of the ideal world, nor to despair of
>striving for it whenever possible.)

Charles,

By grand action rebuilding I assume you are referring to replacing wippens,
hammers, shanks, and flanges.

By no means am I an expert in this arena, but if someone is replacing these
parts, I can't imagine not using some form of weights and measurements in
the beginning to make determinations with regards to friction, geometry,
and mass relationships, whether the manufacturers', Stanwood's, Pitsch's,
or anyone elses' method.   If someone doesn't have practical experience and
understanding of these relationships, the customer is going to lose out.

One for instance is a used gram weighing machine that I have.  It opened a
world of discovery for me in exposing the differences in weights of things
that I could never perceive with my hands.  It is simply fascinating.  And
knowing those differences has helped me to achieve a relative degree of
greater understanding of the forces at work in a piano action.

By using some form of measurement system and having done enough grand
action rebuilds, a person would gradually develop an accumulative set of
experiences to obtain results with potentially less physical examination of
what's going on in a grand piano action and a more intuitive understanding
by feel and observation.

Sometimes now, I just understand what a piano action needs done to make it
more acceptable.  Though I don't go through a thought process that I'm
aware of, it certainly must take place, and that is based on all that has
gone before.


Keith A. McGavern, RPT
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Oklahoma Baptist University
Shawnee, Oklahoma