Posting- Slippery keys.

[TunerJeff@aol.com]

Dear Anton,
     In order to recieve your own post from the List, simply address a copy
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Like this;
TO;
<<<pianotech@byu.edu, 76063.737@CompuServe.COM (Anton Kuerti)>>>

     Your post on the 'slippery' keys was recieved in E-Mail boxes all over
the planet. Do have some patience, as many of the folks do not LIVE with
their' computer... you'll see more responses after a few days, once folks
have a chance to read it.

     The hairspray solution has been around for quite a few years...you won't
get too many folks surprised at this ('though it is clever & useful). I first
saw the slippery keys problem solved this way in a book ("My Life with the
Great Pianists") by Franz Mohr, who served Steinway for some 30 years as
their "Chief Concert Technician". One of his first concert tunings for Artur
Rubenstein ran into that problem. Franz had 'cleaned' the keys after
tuning... and Rubenstein was quite upset. The day was saved by a stage-hand
suggesting the hairspray solution (...which you have cleverly re-discovered).
As the concert was about to begin, the audience was treated to the appearance
of Franz walking to the piano, brandishing a can of hairspray... and walking
up & down the keyboard; "PPssssshhhht!". Much applause and laughter.
Rubenstein was so happy with the now-grippy keys, that he insisted that Franz
carry the can along for the rest of the concert tour. Get the book!

     Yamaha-tech Brian DeTar has actually suggested using the glide-bolts to
make small adjustments in key-height (..and dip) in the manner you suggest
for fine control of aftertouch (...claims this is factory SOP). Brian warns
that this will work with flexible keyframes fairly well, but not so good on
the rigid ones (...like Steinway's).However, the sharp's dip is still
controlled at the front-rail by punchings... at least it's relation to the
naturals is. Shifting the height of the balance rail won't make a huge
difference in that relationship... unless you crank it so far that you have
completely changed the height and dip of the whole keyboard... and then you
face a great deal of re-regulation. I presume that you are looking for fairly
subtle changes in that relationship! What amount of sharp do you like to see
above the naturals? 1/8"? Less? More? (...primitive pianner-tooners suggest;
"Should be able to stick a nickle on the natural and have a smooth level with
the depressed sharp. Uh-huh.") What's your opinion, sir?

Thanks for the Post!

Jeffrey T. Hickey RPT
Oregon Coast Piano Services
TunerJeff @ aol.com
ps-
     So far, posts on pianos (and harpsichords & piano-fortes) for sale have
been extremely interesting or rare. My view is that this List is a good place
to put weird or unusual pianos... but not your average upright or grand.
Hopefully, the List will be self-correcting on this. (Yah, I DID post one
myself!) People are real quick to correct what they see as; "frivolous
postings". Much 'corrective' E-Mail is simply person to person after the
initial List-post.

Regarding the "Netiquette" of re-posting questions along with the answers;
     Some services (...ok... America On-Line is one culprit) have a "Forward"
button on-screen with new posts. If the user bangs this button, the entire
post will re-print along with the inserted answer. Life in the E-Mail world
has it's own patterns. I, for one, often appreciate having this
duplication... I can chuck the initial question-post from my files and simply
save the answer-post (...so it's GOOD to have the question!). Just my
opinion.
And my LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG answer is because you had so many topics crammed
into YOUR post, sir.

Piano tuners all appreciate the playing of great artists on the keyboard, you
might say;
                      <<<Piano tuners suffer from pianist envy.>>>