In a message dated 11/27/98 12:29:36 AM Central Standard Time, remoody@easnet.net writes: > send a post of your visit to the list. where do they get their plates? > actions? > > > Richard Moody I don't know where they get their plates cast? Their actions (I am talking grands here which was my main area of interest on the tour) are all Renner. I don't know if other factories do this, but they test friction on each wippen and hammer flange center and sort accordingly. They had a Renner boring jig set up and bore each set of hammers after taking measurements on the specific piano they are slated for. They previously used Renner Blues (also Renner Reds earlier), but have recently tried Abel hammers. Although fairly consistent, the Renner Blues had to be voiced down too much. They liked their first set of Abels and plan on trying more. The keyframes are from somewhere in the UK. I don't remember exactly, but I believe the keys are from Kluge in Germany. They are working up to two grands a week. Overall, they have a nice setup. There are family members working throughout the operation, and they are always looking for improvements. They recently made some changes to the front duplex in the treble. They are experimenting with some keyframe modifications related to how they are bedded. They did not bring these items up, they were in response to questions I had about interesting design details. The front bass area of the soundboard has a "beam" underneath to decrease the live soundboard area (I assume this comes from Del's early work on design and prototypes.) They previously had it on the top side of the soundboard and surprise, surprise, it got in the way of selling them. They certainly live up to their reputation for marketing ignorance. It's actually very refreshing. Scott Kuhn
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