[pianotech] Agraffe Reduction

[Ron Nossaman]

PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com wrote:
>  
>  
> In a message dated 12/7/2009 11:45:03 A.M. Central Standard Time, 
> davidlovepianos at comcast.net writes:
> 
>     Another reason to replace rather than recondition older agraffes,
>     especially since some of the older agraffe stem joints are already
>     stressed to the point of being weakened.  
> 
> This is particularly true of a series of Steinways in the serial number 
> range of 235000 to 260000, I believe. Correct me, anyone, if those 
> numbers are wrong.

I hate to rely on serial numbers for this sort of thing. The 
nastiest situation I've seen in Steinway agraffes was in the 
flat bottomed ones where the stud wasn't threaded all the way 
to the head, and the hole in the plate wasn't counter bored to 
provide clearance to the start of the threads. The things were 
cranked down to the end of the threads, and forced past that 
to alignment. The head wasn't seated at all, and the stud was 
trashed. They went out that way though, setting world 
standards for years until I replaced 'em in the shop with a 
rebuild.
Ron N