Stieff upright question

[The Pianolists]

Andy,

I guess I have to side with most everyone else who replied to your post on
Pianotech-digest about chopping up the Stieff. Here are a couple of other
things to think about, and further on, a possible work-around.

If you move the key capstans toward the ends of the keys you will have them
in the weakest part of the keysticks and considering that their motion is
actually an arc, this is not a great idea.

If you move the capstans, in order to retain the proper keyboard geometry,
you will also have to move the balance point back half the distance you
moved the capstans, otherwise:
1) the dip will be too shallow.
or
2) the stroke at the capstan end will be too long.

That route is impractical since boring another balance pin hole will weaken
the keysticks and you will have to move (or remove and replace) the key
buttons, and additionally, the key weights will be in the wrong place for
the optimum balance.

Now too, even if you "thin" the keyslip and move the cheekblocks and key
cover forward, along with the keyboard, the key cover is not going to close
properly on this "thinned" keyslip. It'll hang over the edge and look odd.

Judging from your willingness to put together pianos from parts of other
pianos and the routine that you outlined in the "Stieff" posting, it would
appear that you don't mind at all doing extensive woodworking, and I assume
you are good at it. Even so, (being basically lazy) I would opt for the
least "invasive" way to fit a player to this very fine piano without
chopping it up more than necessary.

Therefore, have you considered hanging the stack _under_ the keybed and
having it play up on the backs of the keys with pushrods, as is the custom
in grand installations? This would solve several problems: you won't have
to worry about modifying the wippens to add a catch-finger for the player,
and you will be able to watch the keys flop up and down at warp speed as
you seem to want, without re-weighting the keyboard. Further, you won't
have to destroy the action geometry and redesign the entire top half of the
case.

Do the keysticks extend past the back edge of the keybed? (in some pianos
they do, in some they do not) If not, I would rather cut a half-inch from
the back of the keybed (to give clearance to the stack pushrods) than move
the keyboard, key cover, cheekblocks, keyslip, etc. etc. If your new design
stack is too deep to fit between the bottom panel and the strings, I
personally would rather remove the top 3 or 4 inches from the bottom panel
to give clearance, and finish the stack cover to match the panel than to do
all the woodworking you had outlined.

If you can hang the stack as I suggest, you may have to design your pump to
be a bit wider and less tall than otherwise, but I don't see that as a
major problem.  There is room in the top of the piano for the hammer-rail
lift pneumatics and even the sustain pneumatic.

I don't think you said where you were planning to put the spoolbox. I'd be
interested to know.

Dean Randall,
Tacoma  Washington
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