Robert Goodale wrote: > Steinway plates should NEVER be bored out to accept plate bushings. > Steinways and other similarly designed pianos don't have plate bushings > because that is the way the engineers painstakingly designed them. The > tension stresses in these instruments are completly different than > pianos with bushings, and installing them dramatically alters this. > > This area of the plate (also called the "plate webbing"), is > considerably thinner than on pianos designed for plate bushings. Time > and time again, stories have been told of technicians finding beautiful > Steinway pianos with cracked, fractured, or missing plate webbing pieces > because a previous technician bored it out to accept bushings in a > previous rebuild. Furthermore, it is simply asthetically WRONG. > Fundamental rule of rebuilding: When in doubt, always duplicate. > > I won't (and can't) elaborate on the reasons why you don't install plate > bushings in Steinways any further. I am not an engineer. BUT... I have > heard numerous "structural" reasons why you don't do this from a variety > of well respected and experienced rebuilders many times over the years. > Perhaps someone else better experienced in Steinway engineering can > contribute to my point. > > Rob Goodale, RPT > Staff tech, Northern Arizona U. ---------------------------------------------- I write from home so I don't have a Steinway plate handy, but... Just from memory, I doubt that the pinblock panel is abnormally thin. Like all plates, the thickness of this panel varies quite a bit depending on the characteristics of the specific casting. It is pretty hard for the foundry to hold this specification with any real degree of accuracy. I, too, have heard all of the horror stories about what will, and has, happened to Steinway (and similar) plates if they are drilled out for plate bushings. But, after having looked at probably a dozen or so that have had this done to them, I've never seen one with any damage. It's always a problem that has happened to someone else's brother-in-law's son's nephew. My only concern with the practice is that on some plates, the holes can get pretty close together in the low tenor. Back in the old days, those holes were drilled to dimples and, sadly, this drilling was not always done very accurately. I don't get all worked up about them simply because I don't see the need for them. Maybe that's because I was force fed on Steinways during the early seventies -- my formative years, tuning wise -- but I've never had any real problem tuning them or getting them to stay where I left them. I just don't believe that plate bushings do all that much good over the long haul. But I don't believe this strongly enough to argue with anyone about it. We just don't bother with them much in our shop. I'd certainly not worry about the structural integrity of a plate that has been modified in this manner, though. It's a lot more critical that the pinblock be well fitted to the pinblock flange and the tuning pin flange. Also, that the horn wedge be properly installed, etc. It's really that horn wedge that gives the Steinway plate assembly the stability it does have. Del
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