Steinway upright rebuilding

[Newton Hunt]

Hi, David,
      Boy, you have bitten off a good sized bite.
      First, I doubt you could find much to improve on that scale, unless
you want the excercise.  _The Calculating Technician_ the book is available
at the home office.  Measure from the center of the terminal points at each
end of the treble wires and their diameter.  Measure also the front of the
hitch pin to the beginning of the wrap and unwrapped ends of the bass
strings, the core and wrap diameters.
      There are two programs for the MS DOS machines that help with the
scaleing.
      What you are looking for are irregularties in inharmonicity, tension
and breaking percentage point that can be smoothed bu changing wire size in
the treble and controling the unwrapped ends to prevent changes in
inharmonicity.
      This should be an exceptionally well devoloped scale so would
surprise me if you find much to change.

      If you are going to change the butts of the piano you might also
think of changing the damper levers and felts.
      The hammers can be bored by Brooks Limited who also supplies parts
for the Steinway uprights made before 1932.
      I have a simular project in hand, a 1917 K with ALL new action parts,
key and frame felts, key tops.  I am not stringing this instrument.  So far
all I have done is the keywork and beginning to install the damper levers and
damper felts.  The butts are installed.  Next is to install dampers, then
hammers, then regulate.
      Have fun, you will need it.
            Newton
            nhunt@gandalf.rutgers.edu