Kimble grand/Schwander action

[Tom Cole]

John, Rob,

David Stanwood wrote a while ago about the springs used on wippen
flanges. He said that you can reduce touchweight by about 9 grams and
that the beauty of this method is that it doesn't increase the mass of
the key, which can be a part of the problem when the action feels heavy.

If you're going to install this type of flange, the drill is that you
adjust the helper spring to just support the weight of the wippen.

Rereading your post, John, it sounds like you might have other problems
to consider such as flat a/o dirty knuckles, jacks which are adjusted
too far under the knuckles or incorrect action geometry.

Happy sleuthing.

Tom

R. Goodale wrote:
> 
> John J. Kowalski wrote:
> >
> > Dear List,
> > I'm not too familiar with the Schwander actions and I have a bit of a
> > problem. <snip>
> >
> > The piano tuned well and sounds great now; despite the fact she hadn't had
> > it tuned since she got it.  Here's the real problem, the action plays like
> > your beating rocks.  That is to say it's very, very hard.  I play
> > professionally and I've never played one this hard.  The let-off feels
> > amplified in the key.  It feels heavy, but not necessarily slow.
> 
> Just one final thought...
> 
> Many Schwander actions had the little "helper" spring on the back of the
> wippen- sort of like the new Renner "turbo" idea. Could it be possible
> that this action "should" have had these but somehow didn't get them...
> OR... originally had them but were removed by some other "teknishun"?  I
> don't know how much of a difference this spring would make to touch
> weight but it might be worth a peek. I have a Schwander grand action
> model around here somewhere that has this design.
> 
> Rob Goodale, RPT

-- 
Thomas A. Cole RPT
Santa Cruz, CA