This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment I was out today to regulate a rebuilt Sohmer grand. This older piano was rebuilt by a very reputable dealership in Indy. Some parts of the workmanship were outstanding, others not so good. The piano is owned by a prominent local attorney. He bought it about two years ago. I tuned it once in the home. Since then another tech (RPT) tuned it and fussed with it. I don't know what all he did but he was tired of messing with the piano (the attorney has something of a reputation). A couple of months ago they called me out to tune the piano. The action was a mess. The hammers were blocking and it felt like there was way too much friction somewhere, not enough up weight on the keys. And the keys were very wobbly. Perhaps the other tech had over eased them to try to take out friction, I don't know. I hate being in this kind of situation: picky client (who doesn't know anything about pianos, nor does he play), piano rebuilt by a third party sold through a third party dealer and I'm not the regular tuner/tech. No problem. It's not my problem. I tell him the piano has some serious regulation problems and extensive friction caused by I don't know what. I quote him a high price, stressing it is an estimate, hoping he won't ask me to do the work. He doesn't. Until last weekend. He calls me and tells me he is having a big party on Dec 3. He's hired a pianist and he needs his piano fixed. No way do I have enough time with what I have going on. So I told him I would come out today and try to make it playable in one day. I intended to give it a quick and dirty regulation and take out whatever friction I could easily. Half way through setting let off I came to a note that the dowel was turned all the way down on and it still was not letting off (dowels overall were very loose and many felt like they were near the end). I immediately suspected cracked jack heel. Took off the whippen and sure enough, it was a two piece jack construction and the heel was very loose. Now I suspected them all. I took the stack off and started checking and sure enough, probably 30%-40% of the heels were a little loose. Now I knew why the hammers were blocking and the dowels were near the end. Time for a field CA repair. With the stack upside down I lightly sprayed the jack joint with accelerator (without any accelerator, the CA tends to soak into the wood and not leave any in the joint before it sets up). Then using a hypo oiler I very carefully applied the tiniest drop of CA to each joint (too much and it will run into the pivot bushing. Bad, bad. DAMHIK). Rechecked for looseness. One was still loose. A little more accelerator and more glue. Voila! Problem solved. For ten years now whenever I get an action like this into the shop I will routinely apply CA to that joint. I would urge you all to do the same. If only the other rebuilder would have done it much grief could have been avoided. While the stack was upside down I also stuck the hypo needle into the adjusting holes of the letoff dowels and squirted a couple drops in each dowel so it would run up the threaded hole. I let it set for a couple minutes, spray on accelerator before uprighting stack ( I didn't want any excess CA to drip into undesirable places. Been there, done that). Spray more accelerator onto the dowel where the threaded rod goes in, then I applied more CA to the top of the dowel. I don't think I've ever done this before but it really worked! Those wobbly dowels became nice and snug and they weren't hard to turn. Damper wires were a little stiff. It appears the plate was not reinstalled in the original location. Most of the damper wires were bent, slightly cocking the damper heads, so the wires would clear the neighboring strings. A mess. Applied Goose Juice and they freed up nicely. What a nightmare that could have been. Applied Goose Juice to all action pivot points. Eased some balance rail holes. Up weight still seemed on the low side but it was much improved. I didn't see any other signs of excess friction. The first rebuilder had changed hammer shanks, hammers and key bushings. Those are the only new parts visible. Hammer tails were not tapered or radiused (and they needed to be because of clearance issues and poor checking) so I don't know why up weight would be low (I only have the opinion it was low, I did not take measurements) unless the hammers weighed less than the originals. I suspect another gram or two of weight on the hammers would greatly improve the responsiveness. Key bushings were left sloppy. Hey, you can only do so much in one day. Overall the piano was left very functional for less invested than what I anticipated (6.5 hours). BTW, I used Spurlock's grand regulating jig. I love this simple jig. It makes short work of very precise letoff and drop regulation. Shared opinions on what could be done to improve responsiveness or up weight would be appreciated. When I say poor responsiveness what I mean is the action is a little on the slow side. The keys had no weights in them. Down weight may have been a little low as well. Blessings. Dean Dean May cell 812.239.3359 PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272 Terre Haute IN 47802 ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/7f/59/46/d6/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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