At 6:02 pm -0400 17/7/06, Farrell wrote: >This strikes me as a rather drastic capstan move. Has anyone else >run across an action that needed such a large capstan move? As our >action ratio is down to 4.9 and key ratio is down around 4.8 with >the 10mm forward capstan migration, we may move it back just a few >millimeters. But still it seems large. Is there some hidden pitfall >I'm not seeing? Comments? I'm not familiar with the evolution of the Knabe but I'm surprised that such bad geometry should have persisted as late as the 1890s. And I can't comment on the implications of your modification without seeing the whole set-up, though I wonder what your touch depth will end up as. What strikes me from your pictures is that this piano must have an entrance height more in keeping with a tied action (illustrated above from an 1865 Kirkman) as used by Erard, Bechstein and countless others up to the 1890's. What might have happened is that up to a certain point they did use a tied action and then some bright mechanic in the factory decided to do it the Steinway way without bothering with any calculations or sensitivity. I imagine they corrected the error pretty quickly. And yes, the famous London maker Collard and Collard, committed the same mistake in spades using a cloth-topped dolly like an upright contacting with a short blackleaded lever heel. It takes very little time and wear for these actions to squeak like mad. The tied action is fine but it does require a height not consistent with a slim piano (cf. the old Steinway A for extreme economy of design) and it makes a little more work and inconvenience for the restorer. I guess that the capstan/heel arrangement won out in the end becuse it was more economical and allowed makers to design a piano whose proportions were more in fashion. JD -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060718/a5228c94/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: kman_lever003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 44938 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060718/a5228c94/attachment-0001.jpg
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