1879 Steinway A

[David Love]

I wanted to mention a couple of other thoughts on hammer selection and
tone.  If this is the original board, I would probably opt for a hammer
that was no heavier than the original and probably softer.  It's very
easy to drive an old floppy soundboard into a state of distortion and
length of attack has long replaced length of sustain.  A softer, lighter
hammer will serve the tone of the instrument better, in my opinion.
Ronsen can certainly make a hammer that is as light as you need it
especially when combined with full tapering.  A new, heavier, harder,
Renner hammer is very likely not going to produce the best sound on this
instrument but rather a harsh and loud attack that will stand out when
compared with the reduced sustain characteristics of an old soundboard.
So I might just stick with the original dimensions and employ a hammer
set of weight and density that is appropriate for both tone and the high
action ratio.

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net  

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On
Behalf Of Richard Brekne
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 5:25 AM
To: Newtonburg
Subject: 1879 Steinway A


Hey folks

Am just getting started changing a set of hammers and shanks on this old
A.  The new shanks place the shank center pin about 2 mm further away
from the hammer rail. This pushes the knuckles just a bit farther back
then I would like, and will force me to go through all whippens and
remove a bit of the jack return cushion in order to regulate the jacks.
The origional whippens are going to remain and there is no regulating
button for this position on those for those of you that arent familiar
with this older type of Steinway action. The origional centerpin to
knuckle was 15.5. So with the new shanks at 17, and the center itself
out about 2 mm... the knuckle itself is out about 3.5 mm more.  The jack
to knuckle position with the origional shanks and knuckles has the jack
well under the knuckle and past the back end of the core... so there is
room to make the adjustment to get a good position with the new shanks.

I'm looking for suggestions and thoughts as to what to do here. I could
go through and change all flanges so as to use the origionals I
suppose.. I checked one and the jack ended up just perfect under the
knuckle... but then I have to change all the flanges on the new set.

so whadaya whadaya ?

RicB
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