S&S alignment-final?

[Ken Jankura]

List, 
  I went back yesterday with much trepidation to the 1952 Steinway M that
has been causing me alignment headache, and after some initial cleaning,
popped the action into place with fingers crossed and breath held. And....
not too bad. Here I must take some blame for my own headaches or at least
the size of them, in that somewhere in transition from piano to bench to
string mark gauge, the magnitude of the misalignment got distorted. Yes,
the frame stop block needed to be shimmed but not nearly so much as I had
anticipated, less than 1/16th. This helped keep the damper underlever/key
end felt from becoming a nightmare. The capstans still peek out the right
side of the wip cushions. I can live with that for now. The bass hammers
were initially still off to the left, while the tenor thru treble only
needed minor spacing. I had to force/space the bass hammers over to correct
alignment and I don't know if that will remain stable. I plan a follow-up
trip in a month to check, and if they have creeped back, I will further
enlarge the flange holes to the left and respace.
  
  I talked to the client about parts replacement, and that is a good
possibility down the road. She is a very good player, and after decades of
neglect, her piano is playing pretty well now. I have a feeling she will
have a completely renewed relationship with it and will want it improved
further. If and when that happens I will analyse the action further. I
think the stack does need to be relocated, and that will be first on the
list during replacement/reconditioning.
  
  Thanks to all who indulged me with some great long-range diagnoses. 
  
  Avery, thanks for sending your rebuilder friend's post of suggestions.
  
  Newton, read your post on the alignment after I got back from
reinstalling the action. I already know that the shanks hook a little to
the left at the hammer end as viewed down through to the wippen flange, and
it is not the fault of the rails but the shank yoke. Great tip about the
upper tenor strings being perpendicular to the rails and therefore a good
place to assay whether or not the action should be shifted. I will double
check that on followup.
 
  As an aside, I mentioned the possibility of tuning HT (she plays almost
exclusively 19th century repertoire), and she was TOTALLY receptive, I gave
her Young's from the SAT III, and she sat there like a kid in a candy store
playing snippets of pieces absolutely aglow with the possibilities. I've
never seen anything like it. Sometimes I just love my work! Especially when
the anticipated worst case scenario fails to happen :-)

Ken Jankura
Newburg,PA