At 12:19 -0500 19/4/10, Ron Nossaman wrote: >Ideas? Sure. Good ones? Maybe. It looks to me that you'd be ahead in >both quality and security of the job (if not time) by inlaying a >strip of something a little firmer, like poplar, and drilling a new >balance rail hole. Plowing out for the inlay would both remove, and >get you beyond the contaminated wood, and you'd get a dependable >glue line. Not exactly quick, but more trustworthy that anything >else I know of in this situation. Yes. That's how real quality pianos did it from new. All my Kirkmans have lime keys, which are hard enough already but for the balance hole they still inserted a 2" maple block. It's a bit of a come-down working on these cost-cutting monsters. The pattern for the iron frame for this thing must have been kicking around in all weathers for years -- the embossed lettering would be unreadable if it weren't picked out in black, the gilding is a quick blow-over and there is a difference of 7.5 mm in the strike height from note 53 to note 88. Luckily I had ordered hammers from Abel with an extra 5mm in the moulding length because I don't expect a much better string level from S&S - a B I did a couple of months ago was almost as bad, so the hammers on neither of them ever left the factory hitting the strings in the right place. I've already thrown in a free set of re-scaled bass strings because the originals were so pathetic and they're certainly not getting poplar or maple balance blocks into the bargain. I'll do a quick fix and tell them to save up some more. JD
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