Eliot, > I am about to tune a square grand but I don't know how to regulate them > or even open up the action. There may be two screws holding the action from below (with tapered heads like tuning pins), the keyslip may be tightly fit into a slot, and/or there may be three screws into the front rail below the keys. Older squares have nameboards that slide upwards in dovetails, newer ones have fixed or removable nameboard battens. Be careful removing and replacing the action as there often is a spacer between the pinblock and soundboard at the treble break on which it seems popular to break neighboring hammer shanks, or at least to derange them. > I heard that they do not have a repetition > lever They don't - some have underhammers, and there may be a couple Chickerings with early Brown actions (well, late Mathusheks do have normal grand actions); otherwise, usually they have key rocker/jack assemblies that bear directly on the hammer butts. These need a little lost motion, so the shanks should rest on the rail. Yamaha silk cord is appropriate; I haven't tried Pianotek's. Hide glue is nice. I'm servicing a Boardman & Gray this afternoon, documented to have been 'rebuilt' by the same company in the 1930s. It has a carved soundboard. Clark
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