Jerry I had one of the Everett boards, (got mine from my dad). If I remember correctly, one side was crowned, but the other side was straight. Is yours that way? Wim -----Original Message----- From: Gerald Groot <tunerboy3 at comcast.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Sun, Jun 21, 2009 4:36 am Subject: [pianotech] Piano Key Leveling Hi List, ? I sent this question to several piano tech friends and then decided it might be a good question to post in the tech list as well.? ? I have a question or two.? ? Many years ago, (I know several other techs that also use one of these) I received a wooden level board from the old Everett Piano Factory in South Haven Michigan with the name "Everett" stamped in the middle of it.? The board is the length of the keyboard and is crowned slightly upwards in the center.? When you set it on a flat surface, the crown begins already only a few notes up from the bass, same in the treble, and very slowly increases in crown to the center of the keyboard where it begins to go back down again as you go towards the opposite end. ?Last night, I measured mine and it crowns upwards just about exactly 2 mm in the center of my level board. ??I've used this level board since I started tuning full time 35 years ago.? ? ? Over the years, especially in recent years, when leveling keys on Yamaha's and Kawai's in general, perhaps there are others as well, in the center of the keyboard where this bevel or crown is greatest, there is often as much as about 1/8" gap between the bottom of my level board and top of the key.? On these pianos, this amount of difference is consistent.? ? Because of this, I began questioning the accuracy of my level board wondering if it had warped until last night when I asked Lyle Wood RPT to measure his on a flat surface as I did with mine.? He has one exactly like mine.? We both got the exact same measurements of 2mm in the center which obviously tells me that my level board is not off which raises questions.? ? I regulated a Yamaha console M300 series last week and the week prior.? The Yamaha specs called for, I forget what it was off hand, but, something like I think 59 mm (?) key height.? Low C was exactly that and so was high B.? Others around it were very similar too.? ? After setting the hammer line to exactly what the specs called for and then regulating the capstan, let off back check etc., on those two notes, I checked the dip and after touch and it was nearly perfect but, not quite.? Seeing as how most keys were very close to that key height according to my mm ruler, I chose to increase it by 1 mm to get a better after-touch.? At that setting, the after-touch etc., was perfect.? Yet, according to my level board, because of the crown in the level board, it was WAY OFF in the middle of the keyboard.? As much as 1/8" or more.? There was no way that I could raise those keys up that much or the bottoms of the keys would have been above the top of the keyslip.? There would have a very noticeable difference in key height had you sat back and just looked at the key fronts and tops.? ? So, I sat back thinking about it for a bit and then I chose to use a MM ruler to level them all completely even or flat, rather than using my level board.? I didn't have to change much this way and it all came out darn near perfect.? But, what a pain in the ass that was compared to using the level board. But, it most certainly got me to thinking about this more.? ? One question is, was this level board meant for the older pianos that called for possibly more crown in the middle or perhaps more crown than what today's pianos call for?? ? A 2nd question is, do any of you know what Yamaha or Kawai actually calls for in the specs for leveling?? By that, I mean, I know it just says X amount for key height for all pianos in our manuals but, I was taught as were some of you that it should be slightly crowned towards the center of the keyboard.? For what reason, I'm not quite sure.?? But, I am wondering if maybe Yamaha's, Kawai's and maybe more of today's pianos call for a pretty much straight, FLAT keyboard with no crown in the center?? ? What are your thoughts on this? ? Thanks for your time, Jer ? avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 090620-0, 06/20/2009 Tested on: 6/21/2009 10:36:42 AM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090621/dcc6de6c/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 14480 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090621/dcc6de6c/attachment-0001.jpeg>
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