Alright, now it's 50/50. Let me explain the reason I am pressing this. It is because "specs" are just that. Guidelines. Nothing is set in stone when you're working on pianos. Tuning included. Certain pianos, some Kimballs and some older Baldwins come to mind, you simply cannot adjust let off for example to 1/8" or they might block on the strings. On some of these, there must be give and take. How many times haven't we encounted a piano that called for a specfic key height for example but, those specs were not actually correct? We had to give and take making it a tad higher or lower for it to come out correctly? Same thing with the hammer line. Sometimes we need to make it a little bit closer or further away than what the "specs" actually calls for. Do you file hammers, raise the hammer line and set let off as close as possible knowing full well that as time passes with a different placement of the jack in the let off button, that it will indent it in this new place allowing the hammer to move closer to the string over time and block? Or, do you set it safely to 1/8" rather than 1/16" on a grand? So far, nobody has had any valid reasons or explanations for making them flat (or crowned either for that matter) other than, "it should be flat. Flat is flat" Not one person has explained why NOT crown it? Nor has anyone bothered to say why Steinway DOES crown them? It seems, nobody has seriously thought about this before other than thinking "well, the specs call for flat." Then why does Steinway call for crowned? In our piano action hand books, I can't find it any place in there where it states that it should be "flat." Doesn't anybody actually know why? Now, when I say crown, I'm not saying 1/4" like it's like sliding down a banister. I'm saying, like 1mm or so higher in the middle with a very slight increase from the bass up to the middle and then a gradual incrase from the middle to the treble back down to "flat" again. That is how I was taught to do it by my dad an RPT, Jerry Peteron and Harry Buyce both RPT's that worked in the Everett Piano Factory for years. All 3 were my mentors. In my opinion, flat doesn't look flat if you eye it. A slightled beveled upwards crown in the center does really make sense being the most used section of the piano in most cases and the fact that it will settle more in that section of the piano. Jerry Groot RPT. From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Noah Frere Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 10:57 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Leveling keys i'm going to start putting a sag in the middle, that way when it sags, i won't have to relevel it and i'll just say it's right to spec n00000 _____ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 090622-0, 06/22/2009 Tested on: 6/23/2009 8:24:37 AM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090623/b4aa9c80/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 97 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090623/b4aa9c80/attachment-0001.gif>
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