True confessions!?

[Alan]

Huzzah and Amen. Though hatht thpoken the truth with brilliant
thimplicity and clarity.

Thanks all for chiming in. I wasn't going to feel guilty anyway, but
it's nice to know I'm not the only one in the confessional.

And to Terry's question: Yes, the hammers are squarely hitting both
bichord strings. All I did was remove one of THREE grooves in them thar
hammers. Your comment about rail-drilling was very thought provoking. On
little spinets like this the string pairs are generally very close
together and rather steeply angled, in my experience. Under such
conditions, engineering--and accurately, consistently
manufacturing--hammers and an action that will center correctly on each
pair might well have challenged the MPMP (Mass Producers of Mediocre
Pianos). Add 45 years of wear and tear and someone's crude (crud) hammer
shaping job and I think a clear picture emerges.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Alan R. Barnard
Salem, MO


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Conrad Hoffsommer
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 5:31 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: True confessions!?


Terry,

At 06:11 8/22/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Yeah, but Alan did it to align the hammer to the string, not for
>hammer/neighbor clearance. Alan, did you have enough hammer surface
left 
>so that the remaining hammer was hitting both strings on a bicord? Or
was 
>this just in the monocord section? I've seen this condition far too
many 
>times - and I'm quite sure the hammer rail was simply drilled that
poorly.
>
>Terry Farrell
>
> > Hell, (er....Heck), they do it on Square Grands and it don't sound 
> > any
> worse for wear, IMHO! <G>
> > Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)


Well, gosh dern it. On occasion, I've been a bad boy, too.  If you've
ever 
seen square piano hammers, you get some idea as to how much felt can be 
removed and still have a viable hammer.

When you get to that upright whose hammers are so truncated by wear that

they are hitting not only a strring on the note below, but _also_ the
one 
above, AND the customer is _not_ going to put on new hammers, you HAVE
to 
remove the offending portions of the hammer JUST SO YOU CAN TUNE 
IT!  Remember that the tuning, at this point, is worth more than the
piano.

...  Overcentering?  You bet!
...  Regulation? Wazzat?

You may not be happy with the condition of the piano, but the customer
is 
happy that they are no longer "hitting all those wrong notes" whenever
they 
use the damper pedal.



Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
Vox-(563)-387-1204 // Fax (563)-387-1076

- Education is what you get from reading the small print. Experience is 
what you get from not reading it.

_______________________________________________
pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

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