Correct, William; I just think that if you're charging a substantial investment in a piano action, we, as techs, should just replace these things as a given. At least that was how I was taught by my mentor, Mr. Steve Brady. (the crazy dancing dude! and great friend!) I've seen way too many action "retrofits/rebuilds" that customers thought were totally "rebuilt"! I've seen everything from a very good action rebuild to something looking like a 5th grader took after it with some WD-40 and some sandpaper....Same with restringing.... poorly done and some gold spray-paint to re-bronze the plate! Even paint on the strings...Gives the rest of us a bad name...Shame on them! Paul From: "William Truitt" <surfdog at metrocast.net> To: <pianotech at ptg.org> Date: 11/12/2009 04:08 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Action Reconditioning/Rebuilding: When is it best to replace felts? Another reason to replace action felts not yet mentioned – noise. Old felts compress, get hard, and noisy; particularly let off felts, back rail cloth, front rail punchings. Will Truitt From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T Williams Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 4:50 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Action Reconditioning/Rebuilding: When is it best to replace felts? Good call, Jon If one is to perform a full action retrofit, why stop at wips and hammers/shanks/flanges....especially if the customer can afford it! I have gone to the wurzen conical front rail punchings as well with nothing but huge success and raves from the customers. Like them a lot! Like when I re-string...new bridge pins and agraffes.... It only makes sense. OK, I admit, a few practice room grands didn't get everything...sometimes, just new hammers, or new bass strings, but that's my budget restraints!.....if only in a perfect world.... Paul From: Jon Page <jonpage at comcast.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: 11/12/2009 01:07 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Action Reconditioning/Rebuilding: When is it best to replace felts? Replace all the key frame felts, including cardboard punchings. I don't like to deal with dry-rotted punchings down the line. Might as well replace the letoff buttons as well. For the hammer rail, get a roll of fine emery cloth from Klingspor and adhere a strip onto the rail with double-sided tape (a hardware store will have 1/2" tape for plastic window sheets by 3M). -- Regards, Jon Page -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091112/b28823e7/attachment-0001.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC