<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1555" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Richard,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sorry for your fustrating 4 hours.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If there is a next time do not lower the action bolts, but rather try to get one bolt started from one end. The others seem to follow if you get one started. To assist you getting the first one started one can use a thin screw driver or punch in </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>the U or 0 where the screw goes one or two brackets away.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Or the easy way is to use the end of your crescent wrench or short length of pipe to bend the action bolt up a tad.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>Joe Goss RPT<BR>Mother Goose Tools<BR><A href="mailto:imatunr@srvinet.com">imatunr@srvinet.com</A><BR><A href="http://www.mothergoosetools.com">www.mothergoosetools.com</A></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=richard.ucci@att.net href="mailto:richard.ucci@att.net">richard.ucci@att.net</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, February 13, 2008 4:53 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Baldwin Acrosonic "stealth"</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>List,</DIV> <DIV>I'm going on a slight rant here ,so get comfortable. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>New Acrosonic with "stealth action", the one with all the parts painted black. ( to make it so easy to see things)</DIV> <DIV>This has to be the worst thought out and idiotic construction design  I 've yet to see, ( and I'm including Whitney spinet , and anything that came out of China in the 70's.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So anyway, I tune the piano, and the woman says "this note is not right". Turns out she plays sooo lightly that the hammer bubbles . I adjust let off and get ready to leave, when she says... "it's not right". The problem is that the dampers are lifting very late, and causing a kind of blocking sound. I go to adjust the spoons and can't get the tool to grab, so I decide to remove the action and adjust them that way.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>BIG MISTAKE!!   Have you ever seen the action bolts on this beauty? A threaded shaft the goes into the plate with a large knurled knob. Knobs were too tight to remove by hand and when I finally got them off (using pliers) the bolts would not line up with the holes when it was time to put it back in.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I decided to lower the action rest bolts to allow the threads to line up . This worked pretty well, but then the key dip seemed too deep, and hammers were blocking. Also the hammer line looked uneven.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Taking  the cheek blocks and fallboard out was another lesson in frustration.</DIV> <DIV>Anyway, I got this shinning example of piano design back together and got the thing working reasonably well, but what is the connection between the rest bolts and key dip?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4 hrs.(including tuning) $85  Not a great day.</DIV> <DIV>Thanks,</DIV> <DIV>Rick Ucci/ Ucci Piano </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>   </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>