Steinway M problem

[Jon Page]

Since this piano is not played much, why replace the action parts?
I would venture to say that part of that clicking noise is from the
jack hitting the hammer flange. Since the capstan is placed further
back on the key, it is causing the whippen to move thru a greater distance;
thereby imbedding the jack into the stop felt and forcing it further into the
flange. What this does as a result is restrict the key dip, the jack is bound
up between the letoff button and the stop felt. If you depress the key slowly,
you will probably find the jack holding the key just off the front rail
punching.
I would also venture to say that is not the only problem with leverage.
There is a B from the '60's with this problem here.
Moving the capstan is the way to go, maybe even a different knuckle radius.
David Stanwood specializes in this type of problem. [stanwood@tiac.net]
If you are planning to go the new action route, it would behoove you to
contact Dave since everything you want to do is part of his proceedure.
The action could be sent to him, all modifications made and returned to you
for regulation. Dave has helped me with many pianos.
A customer here (summer resident) flew me to Cleveland last month to
make his recently acquired SD-10 playeable. (He didn't really like the piano
when he bought it, I guess he needed to buy something that day, go figure).
In the last six months, he bearly played it, very fatigueing; but now can't
get off it.
Dave strikes again.
On the hammer weight thread, Dave has also done research into this.
Hammers were lighter at the end of the last century. So naturally, problems
occur when putting modern hammers on vintage actions.  I haven't seen
them yet, but the Renner Light Hammers were probably bourne out of this need.

All for now,

Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
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