Ron: Thanks for the input. I wound up using the supplied sostenuto hardware from QRS. With some fabrication, and surgery to the keybed, the sostenuto now functions well. I feel it was worth the effort, as this is a 1900 Steinway, rosewood model B, completely restored by Shawns Piano in CT. Thanks to the list for all the relies. Herb Lindahl -----Original Message----- From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com> To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org> Date: Saturday, July 29, 2000 1:31 AM Subject: Re: QRS Pianomation Installation question. >>sandra cooper wrote: >>> >>> Herb. I recently worked on a Steinway B with the QRS system in it . The >>> Sostenuto mechanism had been removed. I don't much care for that, but it >>> may be what you have to do. What do the people at QRS say to do?Sandra >>> Cooper RPT >>> ________________________________________________________________ >> >> >>Just wondering . . . would someone who needs a QRS system even need a >>sostenuto mechanism? A monkey, maybe . . . >> >>R©dney Pritchett > >Well, that's probably a realistic attitude... but. Putting the real world >on hold for a moment and centering on how I think it OUGHT to be, I'd >rather not compromise, negate, render inoperative, sabotage, cripple, >hobble, or butcher the existing pedal function to put in a player >mechanism. Someone might, against all odds, occasionally want to actually >play the thing manually (!) as if it were a real instrument. I still >distinctly recall the horror I felt reading the section of the old >Pianocorder installation manual where it suggested adding a booster spring >under the damper lever arm to float the dampers enough that the poorly >engineered solenoid system could lift them, even though the booster spring >made the dampers nearly entirely non functional. The real fix was, of >course, not to butcher the existing damper system down to accommodate the >driver, but rather to re engineer the solenoid and driver circuitry to meet >the power requirements of the damper system. That didn't happen for a long >time. > >Power and stroke length isn't the problem any more with the current (sorry) >electronic player systems, but rather physical space requirements. The >damper pedal can be accommodated to some degree, though the leverage >moments and throw proportions are often compromised to the point that >"working" is only relative to "not working at all", rather than to "working >reasonably correctly". The possibility of maintaining sustenuto function >was apparently written off early in the design process, and only seems to >have been reconsidered as a last minute concession just before the shipping >packaging was worked out. From what I've seen, the shipping packaging is >terrific, but the sustenuto still won't work with the supplied options. The >installer has to work out the moments and throw proportions, figure out how >the hardware will fit in the available space, fabricate the parts necessary >to make it work, install it and, last but not least, make it work. Plan on >spending the better part of a day on just the sustenuto if you have the >piano in the shop where all your tools and parts are readily available. If >you are retrofitting a working sustenuto linkage into an existing >installation in a customer's living room, plan on charging them a day and a >half, or two day's wages for your trouble. For that, you have to make it >work. Or you could just pull the sustenuto, dummy the middle pedal, and >pretend that's the way it's supposed to be. > >Nah, this isn't a sore point. What gave you that idea? > >Ron N
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