S&S green goop

Ken Jankura kenrpt@mail.cvn.net
Thu, 17 Jun 1999 22:59:04 -0400


List,
Have any of you noticed the correlation between difficulty of rep spring
regulation and amount of green goop in the rep spring lever slot on
Steinway actions? I've been regulating an L, using a technique taught by
the great John Hartman, whereby you use a small 1 gram (or so) weight which
you clip to the strike point of the hammer. When you set each hammer to
'just barely rise' from check, you get consistent spring tension, and a
very even 'speed of rise' difference from bass to treble. It has worked
well for me the few other times I have tried it, but on this one, despite
my best efforts, they end up working a little inconsistently. Is it the
green goop? This piano seems to have quite a bit of it. I know that it is a
special secret formula mixture of moose earwax and equatorial pond algae
designed especially to aid in repetition, but I was also wondering whether
anyone makes it a routine part of regulation to clean this out, and replace
it with graphite, Protek MPL, VJ lube, Chapstick, etc. I know it would only
help to replace it, but exactly how does one do this quickly and
efficiently? It's not in this piano's budget to disassemble to clean, or is
there an easier way?
 
Ken Jankura
Newburg,PA
 
 


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