Mother goose string leveler

[Farrell]

David, while your piano/plate level concept has merit in theory, I'm not so 
sure it stands up in the real world.

You suggest that a tilted plate might occur in cheaper pianos as an artifact 
of determining "its correct placement relative to the bridge for proper 
downbearing". I would suggest that "correct placement relative to the bridge 
for proper downbearing" often doesn't occur even in many better pianos - let 
alone cheaper pianos!

But your point is well taken and a good one. Perhaps Joe's little string 
leveler should first be placed on the agraffes themselves. 'Course that 
assumes the vertical position of the agraffe holes are on a line parallel to 
the agraffe top (too big an assumption?). Or maybe piano level should be 
determined by the keybed (rear of the keybed - I guess I would hope it 
wouldn't make too much difference where measured on keybed) - that way 
hammers would be hitting string plane that is perpendicular to hammer 
travel. 'Course that assumes the hammer rail is parallel to keybed. 
Hmmmmmmm.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 

> Erwinspiano@aol.com wrote:
>
>>  To all level headed tech's
>>  I have been using Joe's slick little tool for a while now & It has taken 
>> the archaic out of the mundane job of string leveling. It tells an 
>> accurate story right off the git go. However it's wise to see if the 
>> keybed/piano are truly level first & if not get them into compliance. I 
>> use a long aluminum  bubble level when in shop. In the field a put the 
>> gauge on the stretcher or keybed as quick references.
>
>    But even if the stretcher and keybed are level, isn't it possible that 
> in some pianos, the whole plate could be mounted in the piano with a 
> slight tilt, depending on how they determined its correct placement 
> relative to the bridge for proper downbearing?   Maybe this would happen 
> only in cheaper pianos -- I don't know, having never checked.  But the 
> main thing is that the plane of the strings in each agraffe has to be 
> parallel to the crowns of the hammers, and if the plate has any tilt to 
> it, you'd end up pulling a left unison string up and pushing a right one 
> down, or vice versa.  --David Nereson, RPT