S&S D with high strings/low action stack

[Ric Brekne]

Sheeminees.... what University are we talking about here ? And what kind 
of setup allows for a local dealer/technician combination ?  This almost 
sounds like you are in the deepest Ozarks or something :)... 

As far as your problem goes....  on the surface of it it would seem the 
action stack is simply not high enough for the string height.... and if 
that is noticably off on a stock D.... well then somebody in New York 
had better wake up and smell the coffee pretty soon.  Sheeshh.. I keep 
getting these  skrek stories about New York Steinways from folks over 
there....  I gotta say tho... the Hamburg Steinways I've seen are just 
simply beautiful.  The only <<problem>> puppy I've run into so far has 
been one locally that had a buzzing cross strut.

What to measure in addition to what you have listed ?  Well definitely 
include your hammer bore length and rake angle.  I assume you've already 
tried to get a decent regulation on this thing... but by the sounds of 
it if you went with a 10 mm key dip you'd probably have your shanks a 
half an inch or so above the cushions.  How does it regulate ?

And do you know anything about what actually has been done to the piano 
beyond what you have said below ?

Cheers
RicB


Ric, Dave, others,
The piano faculty there until now just had the piano "tuned", they
were rather surprised about how much difference a "technical" can
make.    Didn't realize that there was more to a piano than "tuning"
& maybe that black-art called voicing.  That said, it still is not as
good as I made another local D because of the previous-mentioned problem.
All previous work was apparently done by the rarely available and
inaccessible dealer technician with little comment or
explanation.  They can't really tell me much about its history.  It
was selected new by the professor and he says if he had it to do over
again he would choose differently.  He says he wished he had selected
a "crisper" action but that what I have done has gone a long ways
towards that goal.  A donor funded the purchase.

The professor just played (last night) the Beethoven 5th piano
concerto on two weeks notice because the original soloist was
unexpectedly deployed (military).  He did a beautiful job of
interpreting the work.  He commented on how much more responsive the
piano was and how it doesn't wear him out like it used to.  (Wurzen
punchings to the rescue.)

I'm going to carefully measure string height, flange height, action
spread, gap to fall-board and above fall-board and gap to the
pinblock.  Are there any other measurements that would facilitate
this discussion?

Andrew Anderson