Hi all, About a year and a half ago I repinned a set of hammer flanges on a Kawai grand (approx 20 yrs old) for a teacher. She uses the piano extensively for herself as well as her students and likes the feel of the action when I pinned all the flanges at ..... "3 swings" ..... for lack of a better measurement. She had some heavy moisture problems last February when we had a deluge of rain and her backyard was clay soup, the underside of her house was a murky soupy mess and the room that the piano was kept in had excessively high humidity........ her remark was "the keys were sweating" indicating that moisture had condensated on the keytops. After that was when she noticed the feel of the tight pinning was gone and I was just there today and indeed she's right. I got 10 swings or better randomly picking hammers in the middle of the keyboard. The upper end had 5 to 7 swings depending on how high up I went. I repinned one note for her at 3 swings and she claimed that's the feel she wants back. I've pretty much deciphered what kind of feel she wants. The action is in really good regulation, and the key bushings are very snug. She liked the feel of the action last time I did this, and so I've got to obtain that feel again for her. She dislikes the way the keys bounce on a fast return, affecting repetition. Tight hammer flanges minimizes this, since the hammer doesn't bounce as much. My queery....... Did the high humidity cause this problem? If so, how? (yes she has insurance) Why didn't the Yamaha MX100, in the same room, suffer the same problem? [I didn't check it but she claims it plays better than the Kawai grand at the moment] How long is repinning hammer flanges supposed to last? This piano probably gets the same traffic on it as a piano in a practice room, or a concert stage. Is there another way any of you would suggest to minimize key/hammer bounce on fast release? Gracias ustedes todos. (thanks y'all) Lar Larry Fisher RPT, Metro Portland, Oregon's Factory Preferred Installer for MSR/PianoDisc Products phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com http://pacifier.com/~larryf/homepage.html Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water
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