older steinway grands

[Bill Ballard]

At 7:47 PM -0400 6/28/03, Jim Parker wrote:
>I'm not sure I would ever straighten a sloping capstan.  Steinway did that
>for a reason.  The sloping capstan matched with a sloping whippen heel
>yields zero friction between the two.

I'm not going to say that I know how friction will show itself in 
these various designs of actions. I was surprised once. I was putting 
a Renner USA replacement heel on a new wippen, and wondered (because 
the cap line had moved) whether I should pay attention to how the 
height of the heel intersected the line of convergence.

I had a choice between a cap whose size matched the one on the 
original rep, but which definitely rode above the "magic line", and a 
tall one which made it down to the line. Both mounted on the same 
spot, forward of the original heel. The shorter heel should have 
shown more friction than the taller one, because it was well off the 
"sweet spot". In fact, the was no significant difference in friction. 
What was different was a couple of grams of BW, added by the taller 
heel.

Of course, our only measure of friction is from static balancing. 
Maybe there are other ways to measure friction.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"If you jabber like a jabberwocky and if you walk like a jabberwocky,
You must be a jabberwocky"
     ........... two punchy guys
+++++++++++++++++++++