Sostenuto Puzzler

[harvey]

Hmm, for Kent to inquire about something relative to S&S is like the
mountain coming to Mohammed! 

I'm going to take the other road... -you- "found the sostenuto was working
poorly and regulated it"...

I haven't had enough coffee to really consider the puzzler wording, but
every time I've experienced anomalies with the S&S sostenuto, and I
-thought- I had done everything correctly, it was due to one of the following:

(a) Action position, due to keyframe guide pins/plates shifting or being
worn out;
(b) Failed to do inventory before closing the patient -- something left in
the cavity;
(c) Performer exercising system in a manner that God (or S&S) never intended;
(d) I had adjusted blade bearing points (pivots) too tight;
(e) While "reaching over" blindly, I had positioned the monkey spring offsides;
(f) The blade in/out adjustment screws were not on the "magic" moment of
torque, and subsequent handling caused the blade to shift;
(g) Any and everything dealing with trapwork underlever spring placement,
orientation, and seating;
(h) Damper stop rail had (once again) been 'hammered' out of position;
(i) Monkey actually was damaged (cracked), and failed to follow the same
path twice in succession, especially when under load.
(j) Monkey "keeper" (tab that's attached to blade) was bent (see item C).

Moral: there may have been a pre-existing condition that you wouldn't have
noticed during the regulation process. When you regulated the sos properly,
the condition was exacerbated.

Okay, so I'm throwing darts. This is not complete, or necessarily on
target, but at least it's relative! Gone for coffee.


At 11:30 PM 1/23/99 -0600, you wrote:
[cut]
>This week I was getting a Steinway D ready for a concert that was 
>tonight. I put a fairly complete regulation on the action. I found that 
>the sostenuto was working poorly and regulated it, but the pianist 
>complained of a cracking sound upon release. This is a first-rate pianist 
>and I knew that the complaint was likely to be valid. Here is what I 
>found:
[cut]

Jim Harvey, RPT
Greenwood, SC
harvey@greenwood.net
________________________
 -- someone who's been in the field too long.