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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=bigda@gte.net href="mailto:bigda@gte.net">David =
Andersen</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> June 03, 2003 11:25 =
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: heavy Steinway =
action</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV><BR>Wim, don't be naive, with all due respect. Steinway has =
been
riding on their iconic name, making from average to below average to =
truly
horrible actions for four decades or more. The wierd paradox, =
the real
head-scratcher, 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 making consistently fine & balanced actions.<BR><BR>This =
has
always seemed, to me, the definition of insanity and laziness, and =
hubris, and
contempt for the American player.<BR><BR>It would be relatively easy =
for NY to
adopt the Hamburg protocols, or some "New York-ized" version of =
them,
but they don't.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080 size=3>All of this =
reminds of the
Model M I encountered early in the 1970s. The owner, a woman in her 60s =
was
complaining of the action's "heavy" touch. Several technicians from the =
store
selling the piano had already been out to look at the piano and could =
find
nothing wrong. After looking at the piano myself and measuring key =
downweight--a
fairly uniform 52 to 48 grams, bass to treble--I spent a bit of time =
talking
with the owner. Seems she only had a problem when she was playing fast =
passages
with lots of quick repetition. On pulling the action I discovered 9 =
leads in the
bass keys decreasing to three or four in the treble. On calling the =
factory I
was informed that since the downweight was dead on factory specs there =
was
"nothing they could do because there is not problem." That was my =
baptism into
action geometry. Moving the stack, re-hanging the hammers and relocating =
the
capstans pretty much took care of the non-problem. And this on a one or =
two year
old piano.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080 =
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080 =
size=3>Sigh.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080 =
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080 =
size=3>Del</FONT></DIV>
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