Steinway Accelerated actions

[Dean May]

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Hi Dale, 
 
No wonder your head is spinning. Just take a look at how many times you
switched between inches and millimeters. ;-)
 
Dean
Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN  47802
 
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Erwinspiano@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 11:08 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Steinway Accelerated actions
 
    
              HI Boy & Girls 
 
      WOW ,All this talk of unison cracking made my brain  numb so I
thought I'd take a different road for fun to distract you 'all
  I my quest to learn all I can about Balancing actions , choosing the
right parts & balance weights and such has led me  once again happy to
be reminded that I Love the Steinway company for providing me yet
another  oppurtunity of endless proportions & to make Bank having  fun
making the differing macinations & incarnations of the illustrious
Steinway actions work properly. It is a challenge & honestly if wern't
for them I wouldn't know any thing about this stuff because they have
given me endless oppurtunitys ..............................etc.
So I'm grateful. You disadvantaged European guys probably don't' get
this rich opportunity with the German Stwy engineering. 
    unt I heer dee have  zee jeegs  & feexteures over daer too so theey
make zee actions uniform ...shhhhhhh   New york  Might find out!
  You gotta watch out for these factory tricksters.  There always coming
up with a new  action brain storm.
  Seriously though it is what it is & I enjoy making a living fixing
this stuff.  It give me creative license
   
     I'm currently working over a wonderful sounding 1966 Steinway  B
with the 
  keys -O- lead syndrome.  Interesting case study.. The high ratio
action always has it's tell tale indicators.
     . i.e..  48 mm blow or longer  & .375 dip, or less  at the pin &
keys full of lead starting at the balance rail
      Installing the new shanks & flanges side by side with the old ones
revealed the location of the teflon enraptured center pin to be roughly
146mm above keybed.  145 to 146mm ....This fairly typical
  However the new parts pin location is almost 2 mm higher.  The pin
sits low in the Teflon flange.  Why? dun no  Hmm...
  The hammers were  bored short for a B at 1 3/4 " or 46 mm. which was
correct  for the old parts. 
    The wippen pin height was also higher than the standard 3 1/4 inch
by more than 2 mm.
  The beginning action ration was 6 to 1. with 16.5 knuckles.  Using 
  17 mms knuckles  with the different pin placement made the spread  a
squeak wider 4 7/16ths but still brought the ratio  down to around
5.7ish  Still to high.   I also chose to reduce the action height by
whittling away the action cleats 2 mm to get the center pins & hammer
bore into a more  typical range. 
  The capstans fortunately will be able to be moved forward 2 or 3 mm
which will bring the ratio down closer to 5.5 to 5.3 which would be
really great.
  At this ratio I can of course remove lead, reduce inertia , increase
hammer  bore length, Increase hammer weight a bit & improve regulation
parameters to 1/3/4 ish blow & .390 dip, which is more typical for Many
Stwy pianos.
  It was suggested that another fix for this would be to get a modern
stack & strat over.& I beleive thsi idea has merit but wasn't really
necessary. Any body do this?
  All this change of course allows a pianist to access the tonal
potential  of a great instrument, in this case, of a really good
original B belly set up. It's a lot of fun.
   By the way the Wurzen hammers on this piano were right where they
needed to be right out of the box.  Power without noise & lots of color.
No needling.
  It's to good to be true......naaahhhhh! 
  Happy Saturday
   Dale
  
  .

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