Greetings, List, and a happy Mothers Day to all you Tech Moms and Moms of Techs. A few months ago a friend, new in town, ask me if I thought a Krakauer Bros. upright at his mothers in New Jersey, would be worth shipping to him (Ponca City, Ok). It was bought for him as a boy, about 25 or 30 years ago I would guess, and he has fond memories of it. I said let me give you names of some RPTs in the area for your mother to contact to get a reliable openion. She did, and he said piano certainly worth shipping and worth fixing up for her son. His statement reads: "Replace hammers, lubricate action, remove lost motion and replace a few center pins. $700.00" The piano arrived in Ponca the other day ($700.00 shipping bill), and I went to tune it. There were 5 prominent cracks in the sound board; at least one under the tenor bridge. Tone was on the dull side but good enough for a practice piano. Strings were rusty making a pitch raise tenseful. Sharps went so far below the naturals that on repeated play the hammers blocked on the strings. Appears that whoever put plastic covers on the naturals took all the paper punching from under the thin front rail felt of the sharps. Took .090" to.095" paper under the front and .018" to .023" under center to set the sharps to the naturals, both with a little more than 3/8" dip. But worse than all the above was the hammers. With few exceptions they were put on old shanks, one that had been broken and glued with thread wrapped from top to bottom. When I got to G6 tuning it got through to me that tone was getting weak. All the hammers were striking too far below the upper bridge. A half inch in most of the upper octave and not in a straight line to C8 which was about 1/4" below. It was embarrassing to have to explain the awful job done by an RPT who told his mother he had 25 to 30 years experience. That is a long time of stealing from the innocent. BTW had to replace some hammer flange center pins which I guess he overlooked. Also, in response to his question, had to say the piano was not worth shipping to Oklahoma. I left, promising to reschedule in a week to ten days to make things right. Have never had to determine striking point from scratch in an upright. W.B.White's book, 1959 edition, says 1/8 of the speaking length to 1/16 in the extreme treble end. Figured I might find where the hammers depart from the 1/8 point then draw a straight line to the 1/16 point at C8. Any comment from anyone will be appreciated. The angle of hammer to shank is less than 90 degrees, and if I raise it to 90 degrees might be enough to do the job. I tried that at G6 and the tone volume improved, but I have not measured the striking length. But I assume the important thing is for the new hammers to strike at 90 degrees. Right? Any recommendations from anyone will be appreciated. Almost forgot. Looks like the lost motion was removed by installing new sticker felt, about half of which has come unglued. That lifted hammers slightly off the hammer rail in the lower bass where I had to lower the capstans. What a mess. It's almost midnight, so good night all you late emailers. Travis
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