[CAUT] "final" balancier/wippen report

[Willem Blees]

First of all, thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. 
There were some very interesting ideas and suggestions. This is one of 
the great joys of being in this profession, to have so many people 
interested enough not only to contribute, but to take the time to do 
so. 

Today I had a chance to get back in the hall to work on the D. The 
piano is 25 years old, but from what I was told, 10 years ago someone 
from Steinway replaced the h/s/f and the wippens. As a result, the 
wippens, and especially the spring gooves, were very clean. So no 
problem there, as Tim Coats had warned about. 

If you recall, there were two notes next to each other, where one (c3) 
worked fine, and the other (b2) didn't. I checked everything, and 
found the only difference was the balancier pinning. Interestingly 
enough, c3 had 2 grams and b2 had 6 grams. So I repinned b2 to 2 
grams, and it made it work a little better. 

But the biggest change I made that had the most effect was the height 
of the back check. Tim Coats mentoined that the hight of the back 
check should be so that the shank at rest is at about 1/3 of the way 
down from the top of the check. I measured the heights of the checks, 
and found them to be 2 1/2" from the key. Fortunately, contrary to 
what Israel was concerened about, these back checks were screwed in. 
So I turned the checks from f2 - g2 out 1/8". This made the hammers 
check a lot better, but not all of them. So I turned them out another 
1/8", reset the checking heights of the hammer, adjusted some springs 
to where the hammer was just barely rising, and roughed a couple of 
tails. And lo and behold, I had what I was looking for. 

The bass section was also a problem, so I turned all of those checks 
out a full 1/4", reset the checks so that the hammers were checking 
evenly, adjusted the springs and roughed up a couple of tails, and it 
worked. 

If you recall, I mentioned earlier that the problem was most prevelant 
in the bass and middle sections, but not so much in the treble. I 
measured the height of the checks, and found that the height of the 
checks in the upper trebel were already at 2 5/8". But by turning 
them up to 2 3/4", they also checked a lot better. 

So here are the four things that will help make a hammer check on 
softer blows, at least on  a Steinway. 

1. The top of the hammer shank at rest should be at the same height of 
a line one third of the way from the top of the check. 
2. The tails should be rough and curved. A tip I got from Kent a 
couple of years ago, is that the lower edge of the tail is sharp. By 
filing that smooth, and taking the edge off, will help with checking. 
3. The check should be square to the tail.
4. The rep spring should just barely raise the hammer. 

I think all of these things combined will make for good checking. 
Contrary to what I thought before, I don't think the resistance of the 
balancier is really a factor. 

Happy Holidays, everyone. 

Wim
Willem Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
School of Music
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL USA