<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Verdana" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Verdana color=#000000 size=3> <DIV> <DIV>Scott,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is interesting, and good to know though most of us will probably n= ever see it.  It seems like your fix is an easier one than replacing action brackets.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Makes me wonder if the action brackets did the opposite of what Young Changs' are known for!  Now we're going to have "Shrinking Schimmel Act= ion Brackets..."  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for the update,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Dave Tahl</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 3/18/05 6:10:53 PM Pacific Standard Time, tuner@helmsmusic.net writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size= =2>Hi all -<BR><BR>You might remember some time ago that I had posted a problem I wa= s having<BR>with a Schimmel grand action in which I couldn't get letoff clos= e enough<BR>to the strings. I thought somebody might be interested in the resolution.<BR>The company FINALLY replied to my many requests for help (a= fter 2 weeks of<BR>long distance calls and emails to Germany) and suggested wha= t some of you<BR>had also mentioned - that I unscrew the letoff rail from th= e underside of<BR>the hammer rail and plane it down a few mm to raise the le= toff buttons<BR>higher. However, that was not what I ended up doing for a coupl= e of<BR>reasons. First, the letoff rail was in 4 separate sections, and I was<BR>concerned that I would not be able to be consistent in the amount of<BR>material I took off of them. But more importantly, the threaded metal<BR>posts that the dowel letoff buttons screw onto went all the way through<BR>the rails, which would mean that I'd have to remove all of them= before I<BR>could plane the rails down - a huge and tedious job, and I'm n= ot sure the<BR>metal posts would be tight enough if I removed and re-installe= d them.<BR><BR>Some of you suggested that I needed to check hammer bore, so = I did that<BR>and discovered that there was a 9 mm difference between hammer= bore and<BR>string height (in other words, the shanks were WAY beyond horizontal when<BR>the hammers contacted the strings). This seemed to me t= o point to my<BR>original thought that the action brackets were too short, a= nd therefore<BR>hammer rail/letoff rails were too low. I used 1/8" aluminum s= tock to make<BR>shims to put between the top of the action bracket and the bott= om of the<BR>hammer rail, which got the hammer bore closer to string height a= nd also<BR>gave me a lot more room to raise the letoff buttons. It worked lik= e a<BR>charm - the action regulated perfectly!<BR><BR>Schimmel told me that = this was not an uncommon problem, and was not<BR>specific to Schimmel grands. However, I've never run into anything like<BR>this before, and only one ot= her tech who responded to me had ever heard of<BR>it either. That person said = he remembered the same problem on another<BR>Schimmel grand from the same era= (1985), and the company had to send<BR>replacement action brackets that we= re taller. For some reason, Schimmel<BR>didn't offer that option, so I improvised. I appreciate everybody's input<BR>on this problem!<BR><BR>Has anybody else had a problem communicating with Schimmel? It was like<BR>pul= ling teeth to get them to respond to me at all.<BR>-- <BR>Scott A. Helms, RPT<BR>Helms Music Enterprises<BR>(269) 381-4521<BR>www.helmsmusic.net</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>