[CAUT] Strange capstan reconfiguration.

David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net
Sat Apr 24 14:11:15 MDT 2010


Maybe they did it with the idea of removing lead, but moving the capstan
back and replacing with turbo wippens would be a wash.  What's the action
ratio?  If it regulates with 1 7/8" blow and "normal"  dip I would guess
it's high.  Make a gauge and check the ratio by dip/hammer rise
relationship.  The geometry line is probably less important than the overall
ratio.  

 

David Love

www.davidlovepianos.com

 

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T
Williams
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2010 11:47 AM
To: CAUTlist
Subject: [CAUT] Strange capstan reconfiguration.

 

Hi All, 

I pulled an action from one of our piano faculty's Steinway B's yesterday
since it's just "not working" right.  Besides the standard hammer reshaping,
rebusing the keys, regulation issues etc., I found that the capstans had
been moved BACK some 7mm back and then turbo Renner wippens installed. I'm
wondering why?  Wouldn't moving capstans back make the action heavier?  To
"fix" this, would the turbo wippens make up for this in a way.  Why mess
with what was there?  This is a Steinway B from the 20's. I failed to check
the geometry "line" before moving the action to my shop.  Why, you might
ask?  Our elevator died and will not be fixed until mid-June, and the
Special Olympics will be here in July, so I hope they'll be on time for the
fix. I had to take the stack down the stairs on one trip and then the
keyboard on a second trip. What fun this is! I'll soon check out the
geometry line next week and put them back together, but want to get onto the
key rebusing project soon.  All else is "normal". It plays like a truck, but
I found the blow distance at 1 -7/8" instead of 1-3/4" and the jacks are
waaay too far under the jacks, so that will help a bunch fixing that. The
key height and dip are perfect. 

What is going on with the capstan reconfiguration?  All thoughts welcome. 

Paul 

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