Heavy Playing S&S C

[Richard Brekne]

Just started a basic action job on a Steinway C Hamburger :) Nice
piano but getting a bit uneven and noisy as time goes by.. about 20
years old. Folks have been complaining for a long time now about it
been "heavy" or "sluggish".

The before anything is done measurements are as follow for selected
notes. I should actually say that I cleaned the action and ran some
proteck on action centers and capstans, and teflon powder on
knuckles... which improved the friction a good deal. DW was about 3
grams higher over all, UW was about 5 - 8 grams lower... here the
change was a bit more uneven. BW shows around 49 gram average.. a
bit up and down for  but not so uneven. The Front weights seem a bit
high and curve off less then Stanwoods graffs would have them.
Strike weights are on a rough 5.7 Strikeweight Ratio curve.. also a
bit heavy but probably good soundwise for this piano... its in a
small concert hall.. lightly damped  acoustics.. seats 100 folks.

I wont be able to fool with the capstans on this one... probably
dont really have to anyways.. but any other advice on how to move
towards a more balanced ratio would be appreciated and off interest
to those who are aquainting themselves with Stannwood basic
principals. So if you got something to say...grin... do so :)

Note    UW     DW      SW      FW      KR    WW
C1         30       54      13.1      46.6     .53        18
C2         22       52      12,4      43.7     .53
C3         28       50      12.5      40.6     .53
F3         27        50      12.1      37.5     .53
C4         24       48      11.9      42.7     .52
C#4       27       51      11.8      35.3     .52
F4         27       46       11.3      39.3    .52
C5         20       44      10.6      39.2     .53
C6        27       46        9.3       26.2     .53
C7        28       50        8.5       18.7     .52
C8        28       52        7.0       11.5     .53


--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no