which lubes?

[jason kanter]

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Couple of questions have arisen for me.

Steinway upright, 1883, 20 cent pitch raise. In the high treble, I had an
awful time getting the tension to move across the pressure bars. Pull,
pound, pull, pound, pull, whack - no movement - gently pull a little more -
string suddenly goes to 5 cents sharp. Lower, whack, lower, whack - no
movement south - suddenly the string is 5 cents flat. Sigh. Pull, pull, etc.
What's the best lube for the region of the string between the pin and the
speaking length?

The other situation is grand hammer flanges. WHen they need some alcohol or
some Protek lube or whatever, what's the neatest way to apply the liquid
without sacrificing effectiveness? Choices I've tried are:
(1) Spray from 1", left to right at an angle and right to left at an angle,
basically thereby soaking the whole flange in liquid and getting the
bushings wet. Messy. Not particularly efficient.
(2) Remove every other hammer/flange. Treat the removed ones over a towel,
putting a few drops on each bushing and working the flange back and forth.
Treat the others still attached to the action, tipping the action up on end,
putting a few drops on each bushing, tipping the action the other way and
repeating. Then replace all the removed hammer flanges. The hammer-string
alignment is preserved by the hammers that were not removed. This is
time-consuming, and seems inherently uneven because the flanges that are
removed get slightly different treatment from those that are not removed.
(3) Remove them all. Creates an additional issue in hammer-string alignment,
takes longer, but gives the greatest control over the work.

Thanks in advance. /Jason

(ps. I am embarrassed to admit that when I was apprenticed in 1970-71 to
Sheldon Smith, the technique I learned was to slather everything with WD-40.
This was my first introduction to WD-40 and Sheldon obviously thought it was
great stuff. I am sure he abandoned that practice upon revisiting some of
these poor pianos.)
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Jason Kanter . piano tuning, regulation & repair
jkanter@rollingball.com . cell 425 830 1561
serving the eastside and the san juans

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