Hammer height conundrum on a '46 Hardman grand

[Richard Brekne]

Hard to imagine the hammers could get this far away from the strings 
period. You'd have to have a combination of very worn hammers and a very 
very low regulated hammer rest rail I would think. Something is not 
right in Smallville here.  Worn cushions cant really account for that, 
as the rest rail would (should) stop the hammers from getting that far 
low anyways.  Especially in this case as you dont have a rest rail, but 
cushions attached to the whippens.  Strange. Even with extremely worn 
hammers.

So...  give us some more information.... what is the general condition 
of the piano, and .... whats the bore length of the hammers ?

Cheers
RicB

George Whitty wrote:

>Hi, Everybody:
>
>   I was given a Hardman 5'5" grand piano by a total stranger, started
>fiddling with it and am now knee-deep into cleaning, repairing and
>regulating it, having a hell of a good time, I must say!  I'm following
>Arthur Reblitz's chronology on the regulation, have done every step up to
>"set the hammer height", where I encounter an anomaly:  he instructs the
>reader to set the hammers to sit 1 3/4 inches below the strings, though adds
>a caveat that the manufacturer may specify differently.  On my little piano,
>which may never have been regulated since it left the factory, the hammers
>are sitting something like 2 5/16" below the strings.  So I have three
>questions:  first, is it really possible for the felt capstan contact to
>have compressed enough that it takes 2 to 2.5 full turns of the capstan to
>take up the slack and restore the distance to 1 3/4"?  Second, I seem to
>have a "Steinway style action", in
>which, rather than a hammer rest rail, each wippen holds its own hammer
>rest.  At this time, the hammer shanks rest less than 1/8 inch above the
>hammer rests, or else actually just sit on the hammer rests (I understand
>that the hammer knuckle is actually supposed to support the whole thing,
>sitting on the repetition lever just a fraction above the jack);  when I
>raise the capstan enough to lift the hammer to 1 3/4" below the strings, the
>hammer shank now sits almost 1/2" above the hammer rest.  Is this correct?
>There's a picture on page 50 of the Reblitz book showing a grand piano
>action that looks about like this.  Finally, is there an entirely different
>spec for Hardman grands in this measurement that I should know about?
>Thanks
>very much to any of you who'll help an enthusiastic newcomer to the care of
>the Last Great Analog Device...
>
>George Whitty 
>
>
>
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