<html> <body> Israel - Some questions interspersed - At 06:36 PM 12/17/2006, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">What is the length of the tails and what is the condition of the buckskin? -- Regards, Jon Page</blockquote> Jon, You may be on to something here. So far I had two Steinways with seemingly "intractable" checking problems - one B at San Francisco State and one D in a client's home. Everything mentioned on this list in this thread was tried (and a few more things too), </blockquote> Would you say what those more things were? <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">and nothing seemed to work. Replacing the backchecks with the Tokiwa- made old-style Steinway backchecks (longer) cleared up all the problems on both pianos ($150/set, Pianotek). It seems that on a lot of them the hammer tails are just too short for the new style, shorter backchecks... Israel Stein</blockquote> Israel - As with Wim - you also did not indicate the manufacturing year of your pianos.  It's true that there was a period when the tails were extremely short, but that's not too recent, in my experience.  If it were only the height of the checks in relation to the tails, why couldn't you simply raise the backchecks?  As an experiment, it falls short of completely explaining the issue, since there are undoubtedly differences in a number of characteristics between the two brands.  Can you look at the two side by side and compare them? David Skolnik</body> </html>