[pianotech] Regulating black key dip

Andrew Anderson anrebe at sbcglobal.net
Tue Jan 6 18:19:24 PST 2009


JD,
This Everett is 9' long and was bought from the estate of Freddie  
Deland.  The serial number comes up as 1900 but it is stamped with  
1942 inside in a number of places.  I had it refurbished by a  
subcontractor a couple of years ago.  It has been played daily and it  
was time to tighten up the regulation on it.

It appears that the sharps are going to have to dip deeper to avoid  
messing with the white key dip.  Currently they are 1/2" above the  
naturals.  With a 1 & 7/8" blow distance the Steinway .390" keyblock  
just works to have a full aftertouch without much excess dip.  When I  
try to match the feel of after touch on the sharps, the punchings  
interfere with the dip on the naturals.  Maybe that was the way things  
were done then, or I'm going to have to redo the entire balance rail.

I was curious what experts would have to say on this.  Thanks for your  
input.

Andrew Anderson




On Jan 6, 2009, at 7:02 PM, John Delacour wrote:

> At 17:56 -0600 6/1/09, Andrew Anderson wrote:
>
>> I've finally got around to regulating key dip on the old Everett I  
>> had refurbished.
>>
>> I set the fronts where I had a good combination of blow distance  
>> and key dip with adequate (minimal) aftertouch.
>>
>> I started setting the sharps by touch.  I noticed that something  
>> was happening to my aftertouch on the white keys.
>>
>> Sure enough, the white keys were catching the black key punchings,  
>> too early of-course.
>>
>> Any sensible fixes?
>
> How high above the naturals have you set the sharps?  Surely if a  
> fix were needed Everett would have fixed it.  Or perhaps you've  
> stuck on horrid fat key tops, which means you need more under the  
> balance and the front of the sharps to bring them to the right  
> relative height. If you add height to the naturals you need to raise  
> the sharps by the same amount by gluing a shim between the ebony and  
> the key-wood.  Of course nobody bothers, so they botch it, as most  
> things are done in the piano trade.
>
> JD
>
>
>




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