Casters (soft vs hard)

[Jerry Anderson]

>>    Aren't those big Grotrian casters beautiful?  But when you park the
>> piano and lock the brakes, I would suggest that you always leave the casters
>> parked in line with the front to back direction.  When turned sideways they
>> can cause the leg to flex outward (or inward) and thus flex the keybed and
>> that can affect keybedding etc.
>
>Thanks for the warning.  I wonder if anyone has passed this on to Grotrian.
>At $80,000, used, an owner might have some expectations.....:)

It's not the expensive piano, it's the expensive casters.  The axles are a few
centimeters out  plomb with a vertical line running through the middle of the
legs,  so there is a small  levering effect.  The ideal placement would of
course
be on a verticle line straight down.  We have noticed a slight deformation of
the keybeds of our Hamburg Steinway D's with different caster  positions.

The biggest difference is between pointing  left and right  casters inwards,
(towards the lyre) as opposed to pointing them outwards (away from the
lyre).  Inwards tends to bow the keybed very slightly downwards, outwards
tends to bow it slightly upwards.  It's not much,  these are really solid
pianos,
but you can feel it if you test the glider settings.  I agree that the correct
position for casters is in-line with the length of the piano....don't forget to
do your regulating in this same position or it won't make much sense to
worry about it before the concert !

. Jerry Anderson
  Paris