Revised advice for ancient "Browne action" regulation...

[gordon stelter]

     Previously I recommended adjusting the "Butterfly
springs", that hold up the "Wypyns", to just under
what is needed to hold the hammers off the rails, and
then adjusting the "Thumbtacks" that go through the
hammershanks like big drop screws ( if yours has them
) to push down the "Wypyns" and take up lost motion. 
Please revise this!  As these springs are attached to
a  separate action rail, they WILL reduce touch-weight
significantly if adjusted thusly.  Now, this
particular action I was working on had "new" hammers
that may have been much lighter than the originals
but, if I were to do this again, I'd only adjust the
springs to what was need to hold the "Wypyns" up when
the hammers were NOT sitting on them. Then I'd rest
the hammers on them and turn the "Thumbtacks" to push
the "Wypyn" up and down in relation to the jack, and
find appropriate "Lost Motion". The hammershanks
should at all times be sitting on the rail, and this
(only) adjustment must have been available to deal
with lost motion. After suffering with this
monstrosity for 400 hours, I am quite certain of this.
    Chickering may have been aiming for an extremely
light touch ( like a square grand, but with better
repitition ) but I find it TOO light if done by the
first method. "Mine", by the way, had no such
"Thumbtacks". It was an earlier version which, I
believe, was abandoned by 1882 ( probably after
EXTREMELY loud complaints from piano tuners !!! ) 
It also had the wooden strips that hold the "Butterfly
springs" screwed onto the underside of the "Wypyn"
rail. Most of the flanges were glued on, too. No
screws. ( Ugh!!!!!!)
     If ANYTHING isn't quite right in the action, 4-5
hours are required to disassmble everything, merely
get at the offending element, and put it all back
together again! If I had to do it over, I'd urge the
owner to install a  modern action or, at least,
install modern shanks but with holes drilled in them
to accept some sort of hardware which approximated the
"Thumbtacks" found in later versions.
    In mine, the only way to adjust lost motion was to
sand the tops of the jacks !!! This had already been
done ( at the factory, from the looks of it ) so all
the jacks were different heights! TOTALLY useless, of
course, once the buckskin wore and compacted.
    I'd be willing to do a detailed article on
rebuilding and adjusting these, with plenty of
pictures. But somebody'd have to pay me! I went
horribly in debt on this job, and am still digging my
way out.

    Thanks!
    Thump    


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