List, Here's a reply from Joel Rappaport after I sent him a couple of posts about this. Avery >OK, on to the backchecks: > > Regarding the backchecks: 2mm below the tail at point of >letoff is a good height for backchecks. Often, it will have >to be 3mm in the tenor simply because the hammers are so fat >down there. > Something you can play around with to a limited extent is >the angle of the backcheck head. Given that the hammer has >to be at the same distance from the bottom of the string at >check, changing the angle of the backcheck will move the >backcheck head closer or farther away from the tail. If the >angle is made just slightly more straight up-and-down, the >backcheck head will be placed a little farther away from the >hammer tail and still catch the hammer tail when the crown is, >say, 15mm away from the bottom of the string. > There is an ideal angle of the backcheck head that puts >the buckskin tangent to the arc of the hammer head in motion. >Another factor, of course, is the shape of the hammer tail. > I remember working in the basement at Steinway on 57th >Street a couple of days with Ron Coners a few years ago. At >that time, Ron warned us that the factory was installing the >backchecks too low and at the C&A Dept. they had to use hammer >removing pliers to "stretch" the backcheck wire. :-) That is, >they slid the backcheck up the wire to make it sit higher. >Now you say the backchecks are installed too high, hmmmm? >Well, it all averages out and gives us work to do, I guess.
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