Wooden Steinway

Arlie D. Rauch adarpub@midrivers.com
Sun, 28 Feb 1999 12:17:44 -0700


Dear list,

A long time ago I wrote the following:

> In about a month I will be tuning Steinway grand #B467866. This piano
> is in a middle school auditorium and is not played very much.
>
> No one who plays it likes it, and neither do I. The one word I would
> use to describe it is "wooden." When you play, it feels like the
> hammers (perhaps actually the keys) are hitting wood. The pedals seem
> to not move very far and also feel like they are hitting wood.
> Otherwise the piano sounds ok and looks great.

Today I serviced the piano.  The following suggestion made by Tom Cole was
exactly what the piano needed.

>>The first thing that comes to mind is that the keyframe is not sitting
fully on the keybed along the front edge. Remove the keyslip and see if
you can move the front rail up and down. On Steinways, the uninstalled
frame should warp up a little at each end but normally the keyframe pins
are held down by the guide blocks to remove the gaps and eliminate
knocking.

If the keyframe pins are not being held down firmly, you may need to
remove shims from under the cheek blocks or simply tighten the cheek
block screws if they are loose. Be sure to check for proper shifting
after screw tightening - sometimes screws are left loose on purpose.>>

I removed the little shims, and the change in the sound was remarkable.  It
sounds more now like a Steinway should.  Just thought you'd like to know.

Arlie

Arlie D. Rauch
Glendive, MT

If you have nothing better to do, check out
http://members.tripod.com/~Turbooster/.  You'll be glad you did.




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