Steinway D questions

[Marcel Carey]

Kurt,

>From your description of symptom, I would have a look at the shank
center pinning for that note. I'd bet you that it's on the very loose
side (I would guess about 10-12 swings). This is the kind of voicing
problem that loose pinning does.

Marcel Carey, RPT
Sherbrooke, QC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On
> Behalf Of Kurt
> Sent: November 12, 2004 11:34 AM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Steinway D questions
>
>
> 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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