D

[Kent Swafford]

The local junior college has the finest concert hall in the area. Their 
house piano has been an SD-10 that they picked up cheap when the hall 
was opened. They have known that they needed a D, and last year they 
finally got one, a 30 year old rebuilt one. It was rebuilt by a known 
company in NY. It has been in place perhaps 9 months, and played in 
public 4 times. That sounds like they might be aware that there is a 
problem with the instrument, but to hear them tell it, it is simply 
that the final prep wasn't done after delivery as promised because the 
tech who would have done that wasn't traveling in the wake of 9-11.

Anyway, I was called out to see the piano.

Downweight measured 75 grams, + or -.

I found jiffy leads, attached to the underside of many of the keys, 
_behind_ the balance rail. I removed them, thinking that I was about to 
find the reason that they were added in the first place. I still 
haven't a clue. Maybe the rebuilder didn't either...  (Anybody care to 
speculate on why they were put there?)

Downweight now measures 65 grams, + or -.

The action parts appeared to be Renner, with real Steinway hammers, but 
the wips do not have screw-adjustable rep springs, so the parts 
couldn't be very new(?) Maybe the rebuild wasn't all that recent and 
the piano hadn't sold(?)

The back action had been replaced with a Renner kit, but with dampers 
only going up to E6, not up to G6 that is normal in Ds.

Most of the capstans were off the edge of the capstan felt, some 
grossly so, so the action is not aligned properly.

I have improved the spacing of the wips in relation to the capstans, 
and re-timed the dampers to lift properly (they were lifting too early, 
contributing to the heavy action), and have done normal friction 
reduction.

Now the piano is at least playable. Before, the piano wouldn't really 
play above mezzo-piano. Now there is at least a forte.

The question, of course, is, "What do I tell the customer?"

The action really needs to start over, with proper geometry, and the 
proper number of dampers, but...

the piano could probably get by with just some weight reduction in the 
action/hammers.

The stringing and refinish appear to be pretty darn good. The action, 
however, is a mess.
3 less dampers than other Ds?

Any ideas?

Thanks for letting me think "out loud".

Kent Swafford