Celesta regulation

[fssturm@unm.edu]

Horace's response jogged the memory a bit. A couple comments below:
Quoting Horace Greeley <hgreeley@stanford.edu>:
> Hi, Doug,
> 
> At the risk of "me-tooing"...what Fred said.
> 
> I've seen mostly Jencos and Mustels, with a few Shiedmeyers.  They
> are all 
> slightly different...think tracker organs from different makers. 
> Jencos, 
> being less robustly built, are more prone to wire bending problems;
> and, in 
> a couple of spots, that is what you might have to do. 

Yep, wire-bending problems. A real caveat when estimating time is to wonder 
who worked on the instrument before, and how much and what sort of wire-
bending was done. The trouble (and, in a sense, the beauty) with the action of 
most/many celestas is that you can solve just about any problem by bending a 
wire. That's great for tweaking things, but if carried to extremes, you can find a 
real mess on your hands. Bending the "hammershank" wire will adjust 
"hammerblow" and "let-off" (how close the hammer gets to the tone bar before 
the key is stopped by the front rail punching). So will bending the "drop-sticker" 
wire. And bending the damper wire will improve damping (if done properly) but 
will also affect hammerblow (on at least some designs). If someone has been 
bending wires all over the place to solve every sort of problem, you might have 
a lot of work unbending before you get to the point of being able to regulate 
(understanding that bending per se isn't evil - it's more or less the final touch in 
fine regulation if you get that far).

> Mustel and 
> Schiedmeyer are more technician-friendly.

I haven't worked on Schiedmeyer, but agree that Mustel is a nice design. 
Though that opinion is based on memory that is growing hazy. I managed to get 
the music department here to spring for me to work on the department's Mustel 
for a couple days about 15 years ago. I did a fairly comprehensive job: bushed 
keys, replaced keybed felts, levelled and dipped. Re-bushed tone bars (they 
were the type that are held in place by two screws, and the rubber bushings had 
disintegrated so they were buzzing up a storm). And then a fairly thorough 
regulation from scratch. Memory says two full days, but it could have been three. 
The results were pretty good, I thought. But then the instrument up and 
disappeared. Walked without a trace. Damn!

> 
> I especially agree with Fred on the time, maybe even more, if this is
> your 
> first one.  Steve's articles are a good place to start.
> 
> Two other thoughts:
> 
>   - Things aren't always what they seem (or, go where you think they
> should 
> be going); 

Amen!!!! Often these actions are quite counter-intuitive. 

> and,
> 
>   - First, do no harm...(I know, you knew that.)
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Horace
> 
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico