Backchecks

[Bill Ballard]

On 3/21/97, Horace Greeley <hgreeley@leland.Stanford.EDU> rote:
<<Some time back Susan Graham had an article in the Journal re:
recovering checks, whichmight be worth "checking" out...>>

Another great article. I built the plywood tilting table she specified
therein, the  one meant to go on a drill press table so that you could
press the new checks in. Although she mentioned angles and distances for
locating new backcheck holes in the key set, I've never had a problem
reusing the old holes after pulling the old wires old of them. Some time
in he early 80's Chris Robinson also did an article on backchecking ("The
Ecclectic's Notebook")  , in which he specified that the check should be
beveled such that it be at 5 degrees back from purpendicular to the shank
when the tail was checking. (Or so I recall....)

Michael Mohr once gave me the specs to located the "New Improved (ca
'92)" spot for the check wire hole, the one in which the  wires leave
square to the key and angle about 2/3 way up. I did this once
(compounding the calculations by trying to figure the check height off
the key--1/16" below hammer drop,right?). I concluded that although a
wire leaving purpendicular to the key might look as though it would be
better supported under the "chop" of the hammer tail coming down on the
it, real support would require that the wire stay square to the key and
hit the backcheck at the spot directly underneath where the hammer tail
does. That would be an odd looking backcheck. (Ever seen one such?)

On 3/21/97, Horace Greeley <hgreeley@leland.Stanford.EDU> (in response to
David ilvedson's query) rote:
<<Recover, if at all possible.
Unless there has been a change, the only direct replacement for the old
style S&S backcheck is from Tokiwa, and the wires on those are too stiff.>>

Not for me. Susan Graham laid it all out so nicely. The old checks and
wires pry off cleanly with a crowbar and the new ones get pressed in with
the aforementioned drill press setup. All in 2 hrs time. New leather,
white maple moldings and gleaming wire.

Why worry about an exact copy of the vintage Steinway checks. The long
molding contributes nothing to checking efficiency. That's all in the
location of the area of leather grabbing the hammer tail, ie. how high it
can be and how much it leans back.

IMHHHO..




Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter

"No one builds the *perfect* piano, you can only remove the obstacles to
that perfection during the building."    ...........LaRoy Edwards