Stieff/key lead - afterthought

[Jon Page]

Andy,
I presumed that the key lead was in the front of the key.
But you alluded to that they may be back heavy since the
fronts do not fall when the wippen is lifted.

If the aformentioned keyleads are indeed in the rear of the key,
there may be a good reason for it. They may be there just to make
a heavier touch. They may be there to assist the wippen to fall.
Their removal would lighten the touch but may affect repetition.
I can't imagine an upright action being so light as to be sluggish
on account of a front heavy key, but one never knows.

This week I placed leads in the rear of the keys on a console
to aid in repetition. These keys were definately front heavy, so
the slightest bit of sluggishness in the action caused delay
even after lubing the centers. The touch was too light and now
it has a nice firm feel with good repetition.

Moving the capstans back will also reduce hammer travel since
the whole action has to move closer to the strings, there may 
not be clearance for the damper levers.

Can you make your stack narrower?

How about finding a nice family for this piano and with the
extra money you could purchase an Ampico unit for a Foster?

Jon Page

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>I previously wrote:
>Andy,
>Stieff 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 Stieff 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)
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>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