On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 10:20 PM, David Renaud <drjazzca at yahoo.ca> wrote: > Hello > > A public thanks to Mark at Kawai for following up quickly and > authorizing dealing with the loose birds eyes as warranty. > They are paying attention and care about it. > -------------------------------------------------- > > > This does motivate me to urge more discussion on a related issues > that remain unresolved in my mind. > > 1) A couple manufacturers are opting for "lower friction" in their flanges. > Why, what is the argument in favour of this? > > I can think of reasons why this becomes troublesome. The lower the > friction in a grand hammer flange the more narrow a window of opportunity > there becomes for the rep' springs to be "just right." A brand new Steinway > comes to mind with the new treated bushing cloth designed for lower > friction. Rep' levers would collapse under hammer weight and fail, and with > the very slightest bit of added tension jump.....30 swings is just too loose > by any measure. It seems to me that if a company desires lower friction they > are narrowing the manufacturing margin of error as well. If a hammer flange > is 2gr or 4gr I can adjust so it works, but if it is designed to be 1 gram, > it had better be one gram not .6 less or it fails. > > So I am curious, and open minded about it. Why lower friction > in flanges by design? > > Now for another matter of opinion............ > How large a required pin in a flange is too large for a new piano? > 22.5 in a 6 month old piano should have a new part? 22, 21.5??? > How enlarged is too enlarged a birds eye are deserves a new part while > under warranty. I know this is subjective, and I will make my own > determination in the end, but others opinions will weigh in. > > > > > Cheers > Dave Renaud > > > > > __________________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your > favourite sites. Download it now at > http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com. > > Hi David, IMHO you are completely in the right regarding your questions/comments about friction of flanges, particularly hammer flanges. Unless the action has been completely re-engineered to accomodate the looser friction flanges there should be no change in the friction of those flanges. If they are swinging 30 swings, it is obviously a manufacuring defect since there has been no change in Steinway regulation specifications to my knowledge. Regarding your second question I would not like to see a new piano with centerpins larger than 20 or 20.5 at the largest for oversize at the 6 month age. There are still many years to go and repinnings to come during the life of that piano. Actually any thing beyond what they should be when brand new is too large when the piano is still under warranty and it was a defect from the manufacturer to begin with, IMHO. I worked for a Kawai dealer for over 20 years, as a private contractor, I did all of the warranty work and dealt with the various techs there over the years, they aren't that hard to deal with. Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090107/9769f746/attachment.html>
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