[CAUT] Agraff levels

[David Ilvedson]

And that's what makes every Steinway unique...;-]  

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044


----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Received: 7/17/2006 4:41:23 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Agraff levels




>> Greetings, 
>>    Yes, it amazes me that the Standard Piano of the World is built so 
>> carelessly.  It is not at all uncommon to find Steinways with the agraffe holes in 
>> the plate bored so poorly that there is no way to bend the wires to accomdate a 
>> truly level hammer strike point. The entire agraffe is canted to one 
>> side,(usually the treble) When this problem is accompanied by poorly made 
>agraffes, 
>> there is a real mess.  I usually have several hammers that are slightly crooked 
>> on the strike point in order to make even contact with the strings.  
>>      And I still don't understand why it is so difficult for the factory to 
>> space the agraffes evenly!  
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Ed Foote RPT 



>It's a hand built piano. Some are built on Friday, some on 
>Monday, some after lunch, by a lot of different hands. Why 
>should the agraffes be any less random than the plate bolt 
>head shapes, or the bearing and crown, or the action stack 
>placement, or the string height, or the key leading, or the 
>apparently infinitely variable signature sound, or anything 
>else in the piano you might name and battle? It's not 
>carelessness. It's Old-World craftsmanship.

>Ron N