My answer to you about Steinway regulation

[J Patrick Draine]

Antares wrote:
>
>But you know, I have (hey! me personally!) learned through all my terrible
>experience of years and years of terrible piano- back bending, and this
>learning actually from theYamaha techs....., that if you apply the one, and
>the > right <, technique, every action will become a piece of yummy CAKE my
>friends.

I'm no action geometry guru BUT I did go to Rick Baldassin's and David
Stanwood's classes at the NEECSO PTG Spring Regional in Quebec City, and
one of the*major points* of their classes are that almost all NY Steinways
have the potential for wide variation in their action geometry. My
imperfect recollection is that this is a product of their assembly of the
case, frame and keybed as a unit, and then establishing the action position
to fit within those parameters. [I invite those of you with total recall to
clarify this point]
On the other hand, I believe (I learned in a Yamaha class) that Yamaha
attaches the keybed after the assembly of the case, soundboard, and plate,
allowing them to set the keybed to string dimension *perfectly*. So, as
Antares writes, if you follow ALL the specs on a Yamaha action, everything
should turn out perfectly. But that ain't always the case, especially with
a NY Steinway.
I forget precisely how the German Steinway differs in its manufacturing
process, but it does allow for much greater uniformity than the NY Steinway
(thus Antares is much more optimistic about Steinway specs than US
technicians).

In summary, I don't do alot of rebuilding (so I'm no authority), but I
think it's good to discuss on the list precisely WHY  NY Steinway specs are
"approximate" while Yamaha's may be "precise".

Patrick