[CAUT] Friday Puzzler

Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu
Sat Aug 1 12:07:19 MDT 2009


On Aug 1, 2009, at 9:55 AM, Paul T Williams wrote:

> I think it is indeed the screw holes in the rail.  For fun, I just  
> screwed in the screws with no wippen on these 3 samples I took off.   
> Well, what do you know...the screws are at different heights!
>
> Is there a way to remedy this, or am I stuck.  Is this a replaceable  
> part?
>
> Paul
	By "heights" I assume you mean with the stack seated on its  
"legs" (normal position), facing the wippen rail, you can see that the  
screws are out of line with one another (up and down relative to a  
straightedge anog the rail). What you would expect if the screw holes  
were either not in a straight line, or drilled at varying angles. Is  
this what you are seeing? If so, it sounds familiar (I have a number  
of 1960s S&S grands with badly drilled rails).
	Yes, you can replace the rail (or have it replaced). But I'm not sure  
that is necessary, especially for a wippen rail on an M. I would  
simply find the worst ones (up and down) and deal with them  
individually. Place a shim (sticky paper, like for travel) on the  
bottom of the flange in a right angle alignment - in line with the row  
of screw holes -  at the front or back of the flange depending which  
way you want it to tilt to account for the screw hole problem. Meaning  
the paper is in one of the curved parts of the flange bottom. See if  
that is enough (maybe two thicknesses). I have found I often needed to  
relieve the top of the flange at an angle so the screw top didn't  
overcome the effect of the paper.
	I have never bothered with the wipp rail, just the hammer rail. I'm  
not sure the effects are enough to be worth the trouble, in a  
practical world.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu
"I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played."  
Schnabel



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