Wooden Steinway

[Tom Cole]

Arlie D. Rauch wrote:
> 
> Dear List,
> 
> In about a month I will be tuning Steinway grand #B467866. This piano
> is in a middle school auditorium and is not played very much.
> 
> No one who plays it likes it, and neither do I. The one word I would
> use to describe it is "wooden." When you play, it feels like the
> hammers (perhaps actually the keys) are hitting wood. The pedals seem
> to not move very far and also feel like they are hitting wood.
> Otherwise the piano sounds ok and looks great.
>
Arlie,

The first thing that comes to mind is that the keyframe is not sitting
fully on the keybed along the front edge. Remove the keyslip and see if
you can move the front rail up and down. On Steinways, the uninstalled
frame should warp up a little at each end but normally the keyframe pins
are held down by the guide blocks to remove the gaps and eliminate
knocking. 

If the keyframe pins are not being held down firmly, you may need to
remove shims from under the cheek blocks or simply tighten the cheek
block screws if they are loose. Be sure to check for proper shifting
after screw tightening - sometimes screws are left loose on purpose.

You probably have already done the obvious things like removing pencils
and cleaning the action cavity. Some dirt may be lifting up part of the
keyframe. Check the glide bolts while you're at it.

Another thought is that the backs of the sharps are hitting the
fallboard. Do all keys sound wooden, certain registers or black keys
only? Do the keys make a wooden sound with the action out, as when the
key pins are not driven in far enough or keydip is too much?

As for the pedals, check to see if the pedal lyre joints are tightly
glued together - the knocking might be caused by some space opening up
at the ends of the lyre braces caused by the pedal box moving closer to
the floor, which would also cause the shortness of pedal travel.

Happy sleuthing,

Tom
-- 
Thomas A. Cole, RPT
Santa Cruz, CA
mailto:tcole@cruzio.com