Stieff upright piano question

[R. Goodale]

I admire your determination and creativity but this sounds to me like a
project that is WAY beyond the boundaries of any economic sense. It you
REALLY want to make this instrument a player I would suggest you rebuild
it and then install a PianoDisc system. If you REALLY want to install
your player-stack design into a piano then I would suggest finding an
old "empty" player and use that. There are many decent specimens out
there.

Rob Goodale, RPT


Andy&Chris Taylor wrote:
> 
> Hi Group:
> 
> I have just acquired a Stieff upright piano that I bought to convert to a
> pneumatic player piano, by building my own custom stack.
> 
>  This is an excellent piano, handles like a dream and a wonderful tone. but
> as to be expected, the cabinet doesn't have quite enough room to accommodate
> the stack.
> 
> I could disable the folding lid to install the stack, but I really don't
> want to do that.
> I noticed that the keys extend 1" behind the capstans. I could gain the room
> I need by simply relocating the capstans at the very back of the key and
> sliding the keybed & keyblocks forward, and  thinning the strip of wood on
> the front.
> 
> Before I do that, does anyone foresee any regulation/touch problems by
> relocating the capstans? This piano plays so nice, I really dont want to
> alter the touch, or cause any problems. Another problem it will have, is
> that the keys won't fall when the player is operated. each key has two round
> lead weights in the keys, one of them probably could be removed, but then
> again, what would that do to the touch?
> 
> Just wondering
> Andy