S&S green goop

[John Musselwhite]

At 10:59 PM 6/17/99 -0400, Ken wrote:

>Have any of you noticed the correlation between difficulty of rep spring
>regulation and amount of green goop in the rep spring lever slot on
>Steinway actions? I've been regulating an L, using a technique taught by
>the great John Hartman, whereby you use a small 1 gram (or so) weight which

Good technique... and contamination by the goop does happen.

>you clip to the strike point of the hammer. When you set each hammer to
>'just barely rise' from check, you get consistent spring tension, and a
>very even 'speed of rise' difference from bass to treble. It has worked
>well for me the few other times I have tried it, but on this one, despite
>my best efforts, they end up working a little inconsistently. Is it the
>green goop? This piano seems to have quite a bit of it. I know that it is a

It could be a combination of that and loose balancier flange pinning. If you
have the balancier off to repin it, clean it and the spring too. I use McLube
grey liquid in the springway.

>special secret formula mixture of moose earwax and equatorial pond algae
>designed especially to aid in repetition, but I was also wondering whether

Best description I've heard yet!  B-})

>anyone makes it a routine part of regulation to clean this out, and replace
>it with graphite, Protek MPL, VJ lube, Chapstick, etc. I know it would only
>help to replace it, but exactly how does one do this quickly and
>efficiently? It's not in this piano's budget to disassemble to clean, or is
>there an easier way?

Trip the springs, turn the action stack upside down and use the blunt end of
those long thin wooden skewers they use for cooking to clean out the groove,
cutting off the ends of the skewer as they get contaminated. Apply McLube with
a small brush to the springway, support the springs with another skewer and
clean them off with a cloth without using abrasives and Mclube the ends. Put
the springs back and regulate. However, DO check the pinning. If there's less
than 2-3 grams on the balancier that may be a lot of your trouble.


John Musselwhite, RPT -  Calgary, Alberta Canada
Registered Piano Technician   http://www.musselwhite.com
email: john@musselwhite.com - blues@musselwhite.com