A troubled technician in "the creek"

[Antares]

Hello dear colleagues,

I have question about a very old piano related problem.
I can not solve it myself and this seems the only place to ask for advice.

Some time ago I was asked by a piano dealer in the south of Holland to work on a 30 year old Steinway in his shop.
A customer was interested in buying, but a "small problem" needed to be fixed and then....

So what I found in the shop was the following:
The dealer had ordered a new set of hammers (already glued on the shank in Hamburg) for this Steinway A, and he had done the hammer change himself.
It was my job to do the rest like: hammer travel, alignment, spacing, complete regulation, tuning, first voicing, and final sanding.
In short..a long day ahead of me.

It became clear pretty soon that something was quite wrong too..
Although the hammers were original Steinway and meant for this A model, the treble hammers did strike the strings on the wrong place, and it was not possible to move the action very much forward or backward.
So I the tried the following: I took off the last 3 hammers (No's 86-87-88), tried them in different positions on the shank and, after having found the right place, glued them back on the shanks more towards the front.
Much better tone! but boy.. much more work too...

So the result was a new hammer line for about three octaves (I do not exactly remember how many hammers I re-glued), but I had made several test hammers, so that I could be sure of the new hammer line.

After having done that, I continued regulation, had a lunch break and tuned the grand.
Now I was in deep trouble! (remember the creek and the missing paddle?)

Why? you ask...the instrument played very very nicely..good downweight, wonderful bass and middle section and a terrible spot in the c''' to c'''' octave! the highes treble being very nice again.

Usually in such a case, I feel a little worried, but experience has taught me to behave, keep calm, do your work well and the problems will be solved.....
And in most cases it turns out OK and satisfactory.

This time however, I was unlucky.
After tuning, voicing and sanding, and some more voicing, the sore spot remained sore.
It was masked by the voicing procedure but still it was unacceptable.
Now, let me tell you this:
I have some experience, worked on many Steinways and other makes, I AM aware of the weak spot in "those octaves" and usually we can mask the weak spot with skillful regulation, string leveling and voicing. Sometimes the result is still sososo, but with this particular model A Steinway I was deeply unhappy and I still do not know what to do.
I might have to abandon the canoo without the paddle, but...eek!!the creek!!!

A last remark: 
the strings in the highest octaves have been changed in the past, the soundboard has enough down bearing and there is no damage.

What could the problem be?







Friendly greetings from :
          
CONCERT PIANO SERVICE
André Oorebeek
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
       
‰  where MUSIC is no harm can be  ‰