>>Someone recently asked me about a digital player retrofit, which he heard >>about, that doesn't need to be installed beneath the grand keybed, doesn't >>require removal of the piano to a shop for installation, and somehow sits on >>top of the piano (or the keys). He also said that the piano can't be played >>manually while this beast is engaged. >> >>Have any of you heard of such a thing?? >There was also something called a "Vorsetzer" (sp?) which was used in >factories to "pound in" new actions. Usually they played a cacophony >of arpeggios, but perhaps they were programmable for real tunes. The only currently available system that I know of is from QRS. It sits on top of the keyboard, rests on the cheek blocks and has plungers that depress the keys. Sort of the same thing that an installed system does only the solenoids fire down from the top front of the keys where your fingers normally do instead of the back underside of the keys. The benefits of it are that it is portable and can be carried in and placed on a regular piano. The people at QRS/ Story & Clark tell me that some dealers rent the unit out, allowing people to have a player for a party. As far as the Vorsetzer or whatever. I was at Web Phillips shop (Allied Piano) who showed me something just like that. He uses it to break in a piano after a rebuild. It stretches the strings, compacts the felts, etc. allowing him to do longer lasting tuning and regulation. BTW, another tip he had that I thought was excellent. When he's going out to replace a string he hangs the string up with a weight about the same as the tension the string will have when installed. This helps pre-stretch the string so it doesn't go out of tune as much. Glenn Grafton Grafton Piano & Organ Co. Souderton PA http://www.dprint.com/grafton/ gleng@fast.net 800-272-5980 The box said "Requires Windows 95, or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
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