<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: heavy Steinway action</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> on 6/3/03 5:52 AM, David M. Porritt at dm.porritt@verizon.net wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>Wim But there is.  There's a lot we can do to change it.  There are a= lot of people making some good money taking too heavy Steinway actions and = making them play wonderfully.   On 6/3/2003 at 8:33 AM Wimblees@aol.com= wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>In other words, with regard to the customer who = complained about the heavy action on a 3 or 4 year old Steinway, the first t= hing we need to ask is, "Is this what you bought?" If it is, there= isn't much we can do to change it. </BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>     &n= bsp;            =             &nbs= p;            &n= bsp;Wim Ah, Wim, my friend-----this has been the dirty little New York Steinway sec= ret for nearly 50 years.  There were 2 guys out here in California, Kei= th Hardesty and to a lesser extent James Bryants, who made a good portion of= their shop income by rebalancing Steinway actions for performance and recor= ding venues and the personal pianos of serious players.  Hardesty was d= oing this in the '60's, '70's, and '80's, long before our boy D. Stanwood ca= me roaring out of Martha's Vineyard and changed things forever. Hardesty was changing knuckle positions, capstan lines, custom-cutting hamm= ers to a specific weight, radically changing the lead distribution patterns = in the front of the key, shimming flange rails up and back, you name it. He = was, by all accounts, a piano genius, shunned by Steinway and the mainstream= of "company" technicians and salespeople. Richard Davenport and L= arry Broadmoore knew him and worked with him;  they have many, many sto= ries to tell. Wim, don't be naive, with all due respect.  Steinway has been riding o= n their iconic name, making from average to below average to truly horrible = actions for four decades or more.  The wierd paradox, the real head-scr= atcher, is what our friend Mr. Brekne said in a post earlier today----that, = in truth, the Hamburg Steinway factory do the best job in the world at makin= g consistently fine & balanced actions. This has always seemed, to me, the definition of insanity and laziness, and= hubris, and contempt for the American player. It would be relatively easy for NY to adopt the Hamburg protocols, or &nbsp= ;some "New York-ized" version of them, but they don't. Crazy. BUT---a tremendous opportunity for the action rebuilder to make a bunch of = money working on modern Steinways........ End of rant. David Andersen </BODY> </HTML>