Hi John --- Thanks for your input. See my comments intermingled with yours. > > Thank you for the information, Nick. I am/was seriously thinking of > fitting a set of the shanks only and would be interested also in others' > comments. > An interesting way to introduce oneself to these new parts. One step at a time. > > ... concerning the problems with the white glue ...[Bruce] is going to send > some CA gel with the shanks. I doubt that I am alone here, but the thought of installing hammers with CA glue of any kind does not appeal to me for a number of reasons, but I may have to adopt should we do another set of WNGs. I liked using the WNG white glue, and followed the earlier, pre-retraction, instructions on its use thinking that the recommended glue had chemically magic properties. I would think that anywhere else in industry carbon fiber is being glued to wood with CA or epoxy. > If you used the now deprecated white glue, that might be the source of the > clicking. The fit of the hammers was good. The bore was a tad snug, requiring a bit of reaming for the best glue fit. As they sit, they are quite secure on the roughened shanks. Whether they will stay that way remains to be seen, but I rather think they will. Removing them from the shanks, I think, would require a small stick of dynamite placed in the end of the tube (though I see other problems with that method). I hope it is not in the centres, as this might make me rethink the whole > matter until they get things right...I know [WNG] supply centre pins > increasing in size in exceptionally small gradations, and if your clicking > comes from the centres, I guess this is the solution, but if they click from > new it does not bode well. > Agreed. Still, many techs report that they have yet to install new, bushed parts that didn't require some re-pinning here and there, if not wholesale. WNG's re-pinning kit http://www.wessellnickelandgross.com/media/pdfs/06-5666.pdf costs $45 (includes 8 burnishers, a large supply of pins and a nice pin holder). The WNG hand-held un-pinning and re-pinning tool is a slicker version of the standard one we all have; nice to own but not at the top of my new-tool list. Still, cloth bushings are more forgiving. Until I re-pin the offenders on my action, I won't know for sure what the problem is, but I have precluded loose hammers for the moment. Your concern is understandable. A new M&H AA sits on a local dealer's floor --- it has at least three notes clicking. In a recent post Don Mannino has reported clicks in a new M&H piano, and I am reporting at least eight clicking notes. I don't mind fixing, but hope not to learn that this is going to be a chronic issue for the life of the piano. I doubt it will be. > I was also critical of his decision to stick with the most primitive and > PITA type of repetition spring, and the reason he gave me was that an > adjusting screw would add weight. Yeah, and a fat lot of weight it would > add compared with the added convenience of an adjustment such as used by > Ibach, Grotrian, Schimmel etc. for donkeys' years. > "A fat lot" and "donkeys' years" --- amusing Britishisms? <G> Well, whatever the arguments for or against the butterfly spring vs. the screw-adjustment type (per other posts @ Mannino and you) some certainties exist regardless: for example, the butterfly spring is at a disadvantage when the pinning in the rep lever, and especially the hammer flange, is loose. In such cases, in order to obtain a nice, even hammer rise the spring must be slackened; but when done so, the snappiness of the jack has also slackened. This in turn could cause repetition and secure hammer line issues (and related maintenance issues), not to mention overall touch and performance sensation since, when the hammer is in proper check in a slackened whip / jack system, the entire key system, from front key end to hammer head is not as "spring loaded" as it otherwise would be (the downward force from the load is triggered to return the key front upward). Now add in even one too many key leads, which wouldn't have been a problem in a properly pinned and spring-loaded system, and things go from bad to worse as to response and snappiness. Re-pinning for useful friction solves the problem, and in any case, the wimpy jack return is at least averted when the jack spring tension and the rep lever tension exist independently of each other. But this all points up what is at issue here RE the WNG system. Troublesome adjustment of the rep spring is possibly symptomatic of a larger issue, and the question is not "what is the best way to adjust this spring?" as "why is it necessary to have to back off on this spring so much?" Some might wonder, well, are the centers too free (not enough friction)? If our usual methods RE downweight and upweight are useful @ the WNG parts (and I believe they are) then 50 grams down and 20 or 22 grams up does not indicate lack of useful friction at the hammer flange. These are typical parameters as exist on the BB action I am working on. So then, it seems a simple fix, rather than adjusting mass distribution at the production end of things, to pin the rep lever to a higher spec value. Currently the spec is not apparent at the WNG site, but on the parts in hand the WNG rep lever is pinned tighter than most wood levers, but perhaps needs to be pinned tighter yet. There is considerably more to say here. And, JD, I agree with you that responsible technical feedback is what WNG should like to hear. > > I was generally very impressed with the quality of all the products I saw > and with the thought that had gone into their design. Yes. > Bruce is a nice guy and knows his stuff. Absolutely! > I rarely meet anybody more obstinate than myself, so it was a pleasant > experience to meet him! > The ancients insisted "above all, know thyself". I must conclude that you enjoy meeting obstinate people. I'll do my best should our paths ever cross <G>. Thanks again JD. Nick G > > > > > -- > ______________________________________________________________________ > Delacour Pianos * Silo * Deverel Farm * Milborne St. Andrew > Dorset DT11 0HX * England > Phone: +44 1202 731 031 > Mobile: +44 7801 310 689 > ______________________________________________________________________ > -- Nick Gravagne, RPT AST Mechanical Engineering -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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