Steinway action noise

Greg Newell gnewell at ameritech.net
Wed Nov 14 11:03:31 MST 2007


Greetings list members. 
I have an action in the shop from an old "A" which was recently redone by
someone other than me. The school didn't like my original quote and did
something cheaper. Now they want me to fix the rather pronounced click and
heavy feel when keys are played. I admit to being a bit puzzled by this one.
The problem is that the jack tip on a forte blow contacts the underside of
the hammer flange producing the click. The new wippens, hammer shanks,
flanges and hammers are Steinway's. The Renner Parts Kit yield no help. I'm
wondering if the rails are soldered in wrong. I've measured the distance
between the hammer rail and the wippen rail on this "A" and on a much newer
"L" I have in the shop which, incidently, is from the Teflon era. The "L"
rails are 129.5mm apart (on center) and the "A" rails are 128mm. The action
spread for the "L" is 111mm and the "A" is 110mm. Neither action is anywhere
near in compliance with the magic line theory. Just so I understand it's
base of key at balance rail pin to wippen flange center pin and the capstan
should cross that line during half key travel and the other being wippen
flange center pin to hammer flange center pin and the base of the knuckle
should cross the line at half key travel. Sure hope I'm wrong here since
neither of the actions is even close. There are also double felts on the
keystick ends for damper lift if that is any kind of a clue to someone. Also
new white keytops were installed but the keystick was not milled down to
accommodate the new thicker plastics. I have some budget with which to work
this out but I can't go too nuts. I'm hoping to retain the new (old) parts
since much of their money will need to be spent on my time. Any ideas?

All the best,
Greg Newell



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