Tokiwa vs Renner underlever kits

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

Hi Mark
   I have installed many Renner parts but not as of  yet the Tokiwa kit 
however I plan to make it my next install choice. I have  looked closely at the 
parts & have samples. It's good to have more than one  choice.  Right?
   In the past....far past ,Tokiwa parts, as you  alluded to, had seizing 
pin/parts problems.  I spoke with Randy Morton at  length this past summer about 
my pinning concerns. The short story is that  the problem was a procedural one 
at Tokiwa which took a while for the Management  at Tokiwa to acknowledge.  
IN the process of Randy proving the problem to  them they built new test 
equipment which quickly caused the parts to seize up  after about 2 to 3 thousand 
repetitions.   ummm!  well...    
     After this encounter Randy hired the  engineer that literally wrote the 
book on Yamaha flange pinning technique and  brought him to Tokiwa book and 
all, where he employed the tried & true  Yamaha materials & techniques & for 
many years  now.
  This was good for me to know.  The fastest way to  loose money is to use 
parts that have problems that can only be solved by our  free/expensive labor to 
....do over! 
  Also next time you need more sos tab clearance why not  use a cardboard 
shim on the rear of the old blocks.
  By the way the New Tokiwa wippens for Steinway are a  spitting image of the 
Renner part provided by the Steinway N.Y  factory.  I have a set on the 
shelf. They are beautiful  & I am installing this set soon in a Stwy D. I have 
compared them side  by side with the Renner parts & you cannot tell the difference 
except the  Tokiwa parts have a number conveinently located on the repitition 
 lever.
  FWIW
 Cheers
  Dale

Does anyone out there have recent  comparative experience with BOTH the 
Renner and Tokiwa damper back-action kits? I've installed several of  the Renner 
kits, but the quality of the pinning of this last one left a lot to  be desired. 
As you can see in the photo the post pinning was substantially out  of 
square. The flange pinning of this particular underlever was also off, but  in the 
opposite direction, which had the effect of throwing the post even  farther out 
of alignment. This was probably the worst example in the set, but  many 
others were off by lesser amounts. I'm thinking that I might try the  Tokiwa kit 
next time, but I’ve had problems with  seizing centers on other Tokiwa parts in 
the past,  and as a result I am reluctant to use them in  general. 
Renner has also switched from  beech to Delignit  for the tray material, so 
be careful if  you’re drilling for the flange screws using their countersinking 
bit – I  snapped one of the screws off due to the higher density! Next time I’
ll ream  the holes out a few thousandths more. The other lesson that I 
learned on this  one is to check the horizontal clearance between the backside of 
the post and  the upstop rail. Since the new style sprung  sostenuto tab flanges 
extend slightly behind the post they were rubbing on  this particular 
example, which I corrected by making new pivot blocks with the  hole located about 
1/32” farther from the belly  rail. 
- Mark  Dierauf


 
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