The felt knuckles were a substitute for buckskin when Nixon imposed an embargo of Brizilian products, one of which was leather and buckskin. The piano industry was too small to compete with the garment industry which made suede skirts, pants and jackets popular that year. So go guess who paid for it! Your measurement of spread action is Steinway "standard", but you may be served better with 4.440" instead of 4.406. You can try a narrow piece of veneer (just to cover the outer lobes) at the wippen flange. This may give you enough clearance to work with, because I am thinking that the capstans arein the wrong place, too far back. Other measurements yhou can try are: Keybed to wippen center 3.250" Keybed to hammer center 5.750" Difference between hammer pin and wippen pin when the stack is on a table 2.665" Get rid of the shanks with felt knuckles and get the small knuckle shanks from Renner America. Look at the bottom of the wippen cushion. If the detent of the capstan is not in the center or toward the flange of the wippen then you definately have a capstan location problem. Try shimming a couple of wippens and regulate those notes and see if you can get some cleanance for the jack. Newton nhunt@jagat.com
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