Hi List, Just (nearly) finished regulating a Steinway D 9', used ONLY for concert work in a hall. Two problems/questions. 1. What is the most efficient way to adjust these #$%^%$#^@^ repetition springs? Is there a special tool, (other than the custom made piano wire hook tool I've made), or technique, to accurately and simply adjust these ^%#^$#^ things? The springs are uniformly far too strong and need to be weakened a LOT. Rep springs are definitely my least favorite part of regulating. I can do this with my custom tool, but hope there is a faster more precise approach. 2. Voicing specific "deadish" notes. These are Steinway hammers. They appear to have been soaked with hardeners, and have very little soft felt left on top after a minimal shaping I had to do. In addition, a previous tech overhardened them, then yet ANOTHER tech needled them down to compensate for the first tech. There are about six notes from the upper tenor to low high treble that have nearly no sustain but a harsh attack, insufficient loudness, and seem to have an extremely annoying tonal "hole" between the fundamental and the highest partials. In other words, one hears the fundamental which dies quickly, then very high metallic harmonics, but no to little octave/octave fifth harmonics. Hammers are fine aligned to strings, let-off is slightly less than 1/16th, notes are regulated exactly like their neighbors, strings are seated on bridges, strings have been leveled, and hammers are correctly fitted to strings. Picking the strings seem to indicate poor response in the strings rather than a hammer problem, but the repeated work by other techs before me make me wonder. Slightly moving hammer alignment does nothing. Moving tonally good adjacent hammers to problem note does very little as well. Could these be "dead spots" relative to soundboard/bridge responsiveness? Could the hammers themselves have been "killed"? Suggestions how to get mid harmonics back in and longer sustain and louder volume greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. PS to Joe Garrett: I AM using the company you suggested for the square grand hammers. ;-)
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