Duplex

[Ron Nossaman]

>Ron, I'm still waffling.  I might just go ahead with the vertical roll pins
>after all.  How do you get the old hitch pins out that you want to move?  I
>tried to pull one and ended up breaking it off.   Would cutting them off,
>grinding, filling and painting work okay?  I'll just drill out the ones that
>will be replaced with roll pins.

They're mean sometimes. A combination of Vise-Grip slide hammer, driving
out from the back side when the hole is all the way through, and cold
chiseling them off flush, epoxying, grinding, and moving the hole
elsewhere. The slide hammer works most of the time, but not always.
Sometimes heating helps, but... 


>Also I'd like to know if there is any tail length that would be too long and
>cause any problems.  Is there a technical limit?  Of course there is a
>practical limit.  Could a long tail take on a life of it's own and cause a
>problem?  And then need to be muted off?

We used to have a cat (Bucky, ancient evil creature), who's tail would
occasionally rise up from a sound sleep and repeatedly strike at his face
like a cobra until he slapped it around some, ran around the walls a couple
of laps, finally stopping to chew it into submission. I haven't had that
happen in a piano yet, but I suppose there's still time. Del posted some
figures on back scale lengths some time back. I haven't specifically
followed these figures, though what I've done has ended up in that ball
park by just going with the physical constraints of the plate and making
them as long as I could, or using the existing hitch location and
eliminating the aliquot. They are:

Sl = speaking length

#88>#79 Sl /1.0
#78>#69 Sl /1.5 
#68>#60 Sl /2.0
#59>#51 Sl /2.5

I've had people tell me that when a rear duplex gets as long as the
speaking length it gets noisy, but I haven't had any problems with it. The
low to mid tenor is another story - and set of noises. Those, I just braid.


>For those that are curious as to why I'm back on this kick, here are some
>comments I got.
>
>"Why bother, the customer won't know the difference and neither will you!"
>
>"You're not getting paid to redesign the piano!"
>
>"Don't worry about the duplex, just mute it off!"
>
>I guess I shouldn't tell registered people (PTG or AKC, I can't tell)  what
>I learn on the internet.
>
>Anyway, that's what is pushing me to do it.  The idea that I may not be
>doing this for the customer but for ME eludes them.
>
>Carl Meyer  Assoc. PTG

So who's doing this project to learn something, them or you? Is this your
piano, or a customer's, and if the latter, hold up your hand and swear (any
language you like), that you have the customer's permission to modefile.
And remember, low stress and cautious modifications.

Ron N