Vintage Steinway Vertical

[Greg Newell]

dear List,
	Some time ago I asked for and received some advice from all
you kind folk about some various things needed to repair a vintage
Steinway Vertical.  The 2 major issues were whether or not to replace
or plug action rail that had to be soldered in and also the type of
hammers to use to come as close as possible to the original sound of
that era.  I'm happy to say that I chose the slightly more difficult
way of replacing the rails instead of plugging a fair number of holes
and it came out great.  I was only off on one or two holes by only a
little bit.  I made the flange hole slightly larger and it moved into
place just fine.  For those of you that may opt to try this ,it's not
for the faint of heart.  I had to buy one rail that I goofed up. 
It's hard to drill on a round surface!  
	I chose to use the Ronson hammers against the prevailing
advice from the list and boy am I glad I did (thanks Dell) .  I've
never installed a set of hammers that came so close to the original
tone before.  I guess that most of the hammer sets I've installed 
are on old pianos and the new hot pressed hammers just don't cut it
for me.  I just never could quite voice them to please.  I've tried
quite a few different brands but was never really pleased with the
results until this set.  I'm looking forward to trying these again on
the next set.  By the way ... not all glowing remarks about Ronson. 
I recommend boring them yourself.  Maybe this was just a fluke but I
had to plug and redrill the whole set that they sent.  They assured
me that they had the set and at the really low price they charged to
bore I thought  "I can't even do it that cheaply"  well ,  I was
sorry.  
	Well I said Id report back and I did.  I'll be hearing from
the customer in about another week or so. ( I asked for and update in
2 weeks).  If there's any more I'll let you know. 
				Greg Newell
Greg and Mary Ellen Newell
Greg's Piano Forte`
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
gnewell@en.com