Steinway-Crown in general

[Dave Swartz, RPT]

List,

        This post is in the same vein regarding sustain & crown, not only in
Steinways but other brands as well.  My questions are (I've wondered about
this for quite awhile):  Realizing the importance of recapping when
rebuilding as Vince and Michael pointed out, should we not possibly rectify
the scaling deficencies that may contribute to lost sustain? (If this isn't
mixing apples with oranges).

        Say for instance a Steinway "A" note # 88 has a speaking length of
49mm and #87 is 51 mm.  To follow the inharmonicity constant, smoothing the
scale, would changing the speaking lengths have any significant effect on
sustain???  Drying the board, putting wedges underneath, then allow moisture
back in has seemed to help me in the past.  What are your experiences?

        I would think that changing the treble scale (lengths in particular)
would give a favorable outcome.  I've done this on many instruments in the
past but unfortunately when the job is finished there is no prior condition
to compare it to. New bridge caps, new actions, new wire seem to pursuade my
perception of the final job anyway but would be nice to isolate the primary
differences.  Your help is greatly appreciated and belonging to this list is
most enlightening.  Thanks in advance.

Dave Swartz, RPT
dms2000@pioneerplanet.infi.net
or
dms2000@majesticpiano.com
website:  http://www.majesticpiano.com