Heavy Playing S&S C

[David Stanwood]

Dear Richard,

Here is the analysis of your concert hall Steinway C:

http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/breckas.jpg
http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/breckaf.jpg
http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/breckat.jpg

Strike Weight is way too high for this Ratio.

Front weight is way way too high.  The line between high/medium is my 
ceiling and all are way above this...

Down/Up Weight look fine but so what.... this set up is a recipe for heavy 
dynamic touch.

You could bring the strike weight to the bottome of the high zone.
But I agree with you that for a concert hall and best dynamic range and 
projection keeping strike weight near the upper high zone is best for tone.  
But to do this you need to lower your ratio to closer to 5.0 by moving the 
capstan/heel line and combining that with adding support springs....

You could take an gram off the hammer weight and remove keylead to get the 
feel better..  Tone may be less but it may still be ok... Have to test.....

You say the BW averages 49.  I came up with the figure 38.....

David C. Stanwood

>From: Richard Brekne <rbrekne@broadpark.no>
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: PTG <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Subject: Heavy Playing S&S C
>Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 17:44:11 +0200
>
>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
>
>

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