Stieff upright piano question

[Jon Page]

Andy,
Steiff made one of the finest uprights going.
Removing the lead will produce a heavier touch, so
will moving the capstans back (as well as move the
whippen thru too great a distance).

Find another piano to customize and let this one 
stand as is, as testamony to this fine company.

There are not many Steiff uprights left.
Pick on something else.  :-)
Sell it as a piano and make some quick money instead of
tying it up in a long term project. It is turnovers like this which
help to subsidize your experimentations

Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
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At 12:19 PM 9/2/98 -0500, you 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
>
>