[CAUT] Steinway hammer spec.

[A440A at aol.com]

Dave writes: 
<<  the tails of the bass hammers are pretty
close to the wippen (OK repetition!) and I'd like to move them out to be
the same as the treble hammers.  Can anyone see a problem waiting to
happen here?  >>

Greetings, 
     As the hammer moves farther out on the shank, you will need to space 
them more to the treble, since the rake of the bass strings goes that way.  
Otherwise, I can't see any problem.  (of course, I have been smacked by things I 
didn't see for a long, long time.).  You might want to double check that you 
don't have backcheck clearance problems if you do increase the length.  Then that 
gets into sostenuto rod clearance, which gets into tab  lengths on the 
underlever post, which might be dependent on dampertray geometry.  Hell, before you 
know it, you might need to move the bridges, in which case it might be easier 
to simply put in a new pinblock and soundboard so you can get it exactly 
right.... 
   I have never found any tonal difference in moving hammers 1/8" in the bass 
section on a D, but that ain't to say it didn't happen while I wasn't 
looking. 
Regards,   

Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html