advice on action parts

[Jon Page]

Dave,
Perhaps the high touchweight is a result of friction. You say the DW is
58, what is the Up Weight? If the UW is 20 or lower you definitely have
a high friction factor. The DW should not be lowered because you will
have repetition problems if you do not first attend to the friction.

Ease: key bushings, balance rail holes, burnish rep lever and knuckles.
Are the centers sluggish?  Ease a few across the  keyboard to assess
their function.

Measure the hammer flange center pin to knuckle core center distance.
If it is 15.5mm then an execution with either a 16.2 or 17mm will lower the
DW. Experiment for touchweight and regulation with the different executions
with a  spare hammer on new shanks.  This is where the Renner USA Parts
Kit comes in handy.

I prefer Renner USA parts and Abel hammers. Don't forget the back action
(underlevers), Renner USA has a replacement  kit which duplicates the 
original; S&S does not have this and their underlevers are from Renner
anyway.

Being an ex-player with longer keys, I don't suspect excessive front leading,
but if there is, it brings the geometry into suspicion.

Happy Hunting,

Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At 07:45 AM 3/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I need some advice. I was asked yesterday to rebuild the action on an
>old Steinway XR (M size player-player removed). The touch is already
>heavy (58-60 grams) with the original parts, so I need to use new parts
>that will not add any extra touch weight to the action. Should I go with
>all original Steinway parts, although I've had weight problems with them
>before on a piano, or go with aftermarket parts using the newer light
>hammers Pianotek has advertised. I'm certainly no expert at this, so any
>advice would be most welcome.
>Dave Forman
>Westminster Choir College of Rider University
>