David writes:
> . Still it's hard to know the variability of what came out of the factory
> in 1920 compared to now.
>
I would suggest that the consistancy of action parts was higher in the
'20's than today. Which baffles me, since the CNC world of today certainly has
the potential of being more accurate. It might be the wood, but today's
whippen sets all have crooked balanciers, pinning all over the landscape, jack
spacing problems, etc. I have taken far too many pre-war Steinway actions
apart and seen far less papering for travel, and far better overall
alignment of key/whippen/knuckle/hammer/string. In general, far better alignment
of action to plate, too.
I was amazed that I could take a 1914 action out of an O, and with
virtually nothing more than a shim on the left side to space the action over a
little, and some minor hammer spacing, it fit a 1916 model 0.
I bet the hammers were more consisitant, too. Many old sets have been
filed, and I often find a familiar tone in them, ( and I don't find the
hardener soaked hammers from back then, either.
Regards,
Ed Foote RPT
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
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