Gorillas

[Horace Greeley]

Richard,

I must respectfully disagree.

While it is true that many (most) movers (as well as the factory and many
technicians) overtighten the cheekblock screws, it is also true that having
them too loose introduces many other potential problems.

The answer here, as with so much else in this work, is one of balance.

In the days when manufacturers made keyframes sturdily enough to allow
solid regulation, and then properly fit these to the well-setup keybed,
these things were (somewhat) less of an issue, as there was a good mating
of the bearing surfaces, sufficient mass to keep things from bouncing
around, et cetera.

For the past decade or so, however, things have been changing.  In addition
to the changes in the quality of basic materials affected by availability
and EPA issues (among others), manufacturers, in order to remain
"profitable" (whatever _that_ means), have had to modify their
manufacturing techniques, if not their designs.  Part of the fallout from
that has been instruments which are increasingly difficult to keep
regulated (etc) to traditional levels of consistency, longevity and
expectation.

In re: the instant problem of cheekblock screws, the unfortunate reality is
that, if you do not have the time to properly re-forefinish a given
instrument (and even then, sometimes) you are going to be in the position
of constantly having to redo certain adjustments fairly frequently.

As an example of this, while at USC, one of the pianos in my care was an
S&S D in a building which, depending on the time of year, could experience
90o temperature and 100% humidity swings in the course of a 24 hour period.
 (Measured with a recording hygrothermograph.)   As the average number of
tunings for performances during the Spring (Jan-May) term was over 350, I
saw this instrument fairly frequently.  At the risk of boring folks with
gory details, it was not unusual to have to adjust both the glides and the
cheekblocks several times a day during this period.  I never went to this
instrument without my own version of Godzilla, and a crescent wrench.

There are, of course, ways to (somewhat) ameliorate these problems.
Unfortunately, these things take time, and, therefore, money.  This reduces
someone else's profit.  Or means that one works until 3 (that's a.m.).  Or
both.

Best.

Horace



At 07:37 PM 3/7/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Avery wrote:
>
>I have that problem with the techs at the local S&S dealer.  Every
>time I need to get into one of his C&A pianos. because of the Gorilla
>who tightened down the cheek block screws I have to have a Godzilla
>screwdriver to get the screws out.
>
>Avery,
>
>The cheek blocks should be only finger tight because if they were
>over tight it might cause the unacorda not to function properly.  I
>had the same problem and found out it was the movers doing the
>tightening.
>
>Richard Bittner RPT
>
>
Horace Greeley

Stanford University
email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 415.725.9062
LiNCS help line: 415.725.4627