In a message dated 3/3/00 11:28:18 AM !!!First Boot!!!, gharvey@netsource.co.nz writes: << Hi List, I'm working on a 7' Schiedmayer grand from around 1900's that has seen quite a bit of work previously. Nothing new in that, however I have some queries that I'm sure many of you may be able to address. The upper treble section has recently been restrung, (a poor job too I might add, and the customer thinks so too) but what I noticed first off is that the previous tech left out the bearing cloth between the agraffes and pins. (Possibly intentionally) There is a metal curved bearing insert where the remainder of the piano has bearing cloth. After de-stringing I noticed that the other bearing inserts were timber with cloth covering. My question is; should the upper treble metal insert have a cloth covering or is there a good reason for it being metal and possibly not being covered? The restring job in this section was done with one gauge throughout (note 70 to note 88 with .825mm or .032") giving the treble a strange sound as well. After sanding off the terrible paint job (gold house paint applied with yard broom) I found the original (?) plate gauge markings showing 4 gauge changes in this section which seems more normal to me. Do most of you routinely check the scaling in the treble? If so do you often find improvements, as there is little room to move in this area, perhaps only a gauge or so and stepping at a slightly different point? BTW I think the same tech did the action work, the DW was too heavy to be read by my measure weights ie 70 plus grams. New hammers down to note 13, some new knuckles here and there etc etc. Plays like a truck... Many thanks, Regards, Graeme Harvey New Plymouth NZ. >> As far as the bearing inserts, I would advice you try to do the same thing an all of them. I have done a few pianos where the strings were left to "ring" between bearing and pin, (kind of like a reverse duplex), and it created more problems than I wanted to deal with. As far as the scaling, since you have the scaling from the original, I would do it that way. I have rescaled the upper treble on a couple of pianos with good results. Not just with pianos that were restrung, but even on pianos with the original scale. With all the other problems with the piano, I would question whether to do just a few things to make it better, or to attempt to rebuild the whole piano, starting from scratch, so to speak, to make it play and sound better. I don't know if you have the ability to do that, (I know I would have a difficult time doing it), or if the customer is willing to pay for it, or if the piano is worth it. Willem
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