S&S D with high strings/low action stack

[Avery]

Andrew,

At 08:44 PM 10/9/2006, you wrote:
>Ric,
>Yeah, the hammers are well above the felt, I went for the standard 
>0.390 key-dip as there was adequate after-touch.  Regulation is much 
>improved now with the exception of a rather deep drop setting.  Drop 
>screws were pretty much maxed out before I started on them.  A 
>couple were broken so I guess the dealer tech. was up against it too.
>
>As to history, I could try pumping the former Dean of the school for 
>more info, he's a guitar guy and hard to catch.  As for the school, 
>try deep Texas on the border where you have to know someone to do 
>anything.  As for Steinway NY, it was a cost cutting move, leave 
>finishing the pianos to the dealers (don't reduce the price) and the 
>fabled marketing department pitched it as a piano locally customized 
>for you!  Which means the Monday morning after... pianos slip out 
>the door and get shipped to unsuspecting dealers who hope and pray 
>for unsuspecting customers.

Unless you're lucky and actually have a dealer who preps their pianos 
before they're "out the door". Thankfully, we do.
At least they try. :-)

Avery


>Andrew Anderson
>
>At 12:48 PM 10/9/2006, you wrote:
>>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