Opinions?

[atonal@planet.eon.net]

> From:          A440A@aol.com
> Date:          Fri, 28 Nov 1997 19:17:28 -0500 (EST)
> To:            pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject:       Opinions?
> Reply-to:      pianotech@ptg.org

> 
> Greetings list, 
>      I received the following from a regular contributor on another  group.
>  I could not help, as I have not seen these pianos.  I would welcome comments
> from those that have. 
>  
> 
> >"Today I had the surprise of my life. A piano dealer in Pacific Grove >had
> in his window a brand new high gloss (polyester) black Wuritzer >5'1" grand
> made in Korea . I sat down to play it, expecting it to sound >like a bad
> Young Chang or Samick, and found that it sounded really >very beautiful
> indeed.
> 
> <snip> In fact, this piano
> 
> >reminded me of a small Schimmel grand I had played recently.
> 
> 
> 
> >       What impressed me was the finish work. The hammers are hitting >the
> strings squarely, and there are no leaking agraffes, the dampers >lift evenly
> off the strings, the key work is beautiful. I checked out the >bridge
> notching, and found it was beautiful work. The only slightly >negative aspect
> was that the action felt a little bit sluggish, or heavy, >although the notes
> repeated well.
> 
>   >   I wanted to ask if you have had any experience with Wurlitzer .grands
>  manufactured in Korea. If the keyframes are made out of >pressed fibre, or
> if there is any other glaring manufacturing >deficiency I would like to know
> about it before making a >recommendation.""
>   
> Thoughts anyone??
> Ed Foote


The Wurlitzer grands have been produced in Korea, originally by Young 
Chang in the early '90's and more recently by Samick. Wurlitzer is, 
in turn, owned and distributed by the Baldwin company. I have worked 
on many of these grands, and have found that overall, the quality is 
acceptable to good, with a few nagging problems:

1) Excessive action noise over time. A couple of years ago, I asked 
the list how to quiet noisy Korean actions, the results are in the 
archive somewhere. This request was prompted by working with new and 
nearly new Wurlitzer grands. The leather was extremely hard (still 
remains so, check recent grand knuckle posts) and the regulating 
button felt (on the jack stop and balancier lever stop)  makes 
excessive >thunking< sounds on the hammer return. 

2) Excessively hard hammers. I agree with Del on his recent posts 
regarding hard hammers. Creating an excessively hard pressed hammer 
results in a bright tone, at the expense of everything else. Power, 
sustain, una-corda voicing goes out the window. As recently as two 
weeks ago, we uncrated a new 5'8" C173 Wurlitzer (note the Samick 
number designation) and the hammers were so hard that  there were 
needle tracks in the felt from the factory voicing. Steam treatment 
followed by judicious needling brings these hammers down to a 
managable level.

3) Damper leaking and timing. Despite the original post, I suspect 
the instrument in question probably went through several hours of 
regulation. Hammer/string fitting and string levelling are good but 
not great, but the real bear is damper leaking. MANY hours have been 
spent on Wurlitzers to get the dampers seated and lifting evenly. 
Once this arduous process is completed, the dampers seem to stay put. 
Thank goodness for damper spoons, they make lift timing so much 
easier!

4) Action weight. This mostly has do do with my suspicion that the 
actions are weighed off prior to easing friction points. If key 
bushings and balance holes are eased properly (not excessively) and 
capstans polished, wippen felt and knuckles Teflon lubed, and centers 
checked and re-pinned accordingly (which all takes a good Saturday to 
do), the action downweight to upweight ratios change dramatically. 
Typically, the downweight drops 5-10 grams/key and the upweight 
remains constant around 18-25 grams. You shouldn't have to move lead 
around, except for extreme cases. Usually this procedure cures heavy 
action complaints, although timing the dampers a shade late helps 
too.

Overall, these instuments are decent enough with some prep time, and 
certianly a far cry from the mid '80's Korean instruments.

These is my opinions, and I'm stickin' to 'em (although I'm willin' 
to listen to others. As my wife points out, other people have points 
of view too.)

Regards, 

Rob Kiddell, 
Registered Piano Technician, PTG
atonal@planet.eon.net