Korean Piano Prepping, was Samick hammer knuckles HARD!!

[Brad Smith]

Roger, Thanks for starting a thread I was thinking of starting! Namely
Korean piano prepping.  A dealer I work with does not see the value of doing
this 'extra' work. It
would be great to have some input from you all about it. Specifically, what
steps would
you include on the typical Korean grand out of the crate?  What if you could
only get the dealer to spring for an extra hour of time? What would your
highest priorities be?

I have found jack pins too tight, dampers 'leaking', ear piercing tone,
sluggish keys,
squeaking pedals, misaligned, leg bolts interferring with key frame, too
tight tuning pins, and actions that sound like .....(what's that old movie
where the guy keeps talking
about a new machine that goes..."..pocketa, pocketa, pocketa, pocketa...")

So, a quick list, if you had an hour, or if you had three hours, or if you
had a day. Or,
if you had no choice, but still need to keep the relationship with the
dealer.

Thanks everyone!  Merry Christmas, OOPS I mean Happy winter seasonal
greetings,
BTW, our second 'Reproductive Health Care Choice' is due in mid January!
Can't wait!

Brad Smith, RPT

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Jolly <baldyam@sk.sympatico.ca>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Tuesday, December 09, 1997 4:59 AM
Subject: Re: Samick hammer knuckles HARD!!


>At 12:03 AM 12/9/97 EST, you wrote:
>>to Roger Jolly
>>                   Just this very day, I replaced a set of knuckles on a
>>Samick grand.
>>I did not diagnose this problem,but got stuck with the work. I noticed the
>>clacking coming from other parts of the action also. But I was wondering,
if
>>in the No 4 treatment, If the fabric softener treatment added to the
alcohol
>>would improve the results. Did you try this? If it worked, you could treat
>the
>>wippen heel felt, let-off dowel, and jack regulating button very quickly
and
>>achieve great noise reduction with a minimum of effort. What do you
think??
>>                                                           Theodore Mamel
RPT
>>                                                            Pittsburgh
>Chapter
>>Hi Theodore,
>                The fabric softener sounds like a good idea. I'll try it on
>a section on the next one. The steam was an easy winner for shop work.
> I routinely steam, wip cloth with a wet cloth and iron on these units,
>then spray with teflon powder, it makes a big difference. The drop button
>leather also tends to be too stiff in these models adding to the noise. I'm
>not so sure if the felt and leather products are the real problem, or, the
>glue wicking into the material.
>  The over view of these actions is that there is an accumulation of many
>things. that add to the clatter. If you have a day and a half, start with
>carefully bedding the frame, work your way systematically through the hard
>felt problems. shrink centre pin bushings as required. Tail hammers
>correctly and remove some mass from the sides of the hammers.
>  After careful regulation they can feel and respond very much like a
Yamaha.
>In fact after doing this work we find that, consumer choice is about 50-50.
>There is a bass warmth thats attainable, that is not normally found on the
>budget pianos. The  basic scale design and balance of these units is very
>acceptable. With the value added work that we do, we increase the selling
>price accordingly.
>>Regards
>Roger Jolly
>University of Saskatchewan
>Dept. of Music.
>