hammer travel

[A440A at aol.com]

<< While we are there, I heard that some (very respectable) technicians do 
put a little horizontal travel (to the left) on the few lower tenor hammers, on 
Steinway pianos.  Is this common practice ?  What is the reason therefor ? >>

Greetings,
     It is never better, but often  seen.  Steinway string spacing is an 
inexact component of the piano.  It is not uncommon to have the lowest two or 
three tenor hammers to be spaced far to the left of their whippen cushions, simply 
to hit the strings, (whose agraffe drilling may have spread leftward when 
drilled, or maybe the holes in the rails, or the bridge. Whatever, the 
consistancy of Steinway string spacing is low).  
    Sometimes it is expeditious to allow the lowest hammers to travel in 
order to minimize the requiste mis-alignment that hammer spacing requires. 
    Another reason is to allow the hammers to clear, if the rake angle is too 
severe for hammer to hammer clearance.  
      Another thing to think about is that the factory doesn't seem to 
consider traveling hammers to be a problem, and often use the traveling to 
accommodate inconsistant string spacing to an even hammer spacing at rest.  Appearances 
are important and this seems to be a case of appearance taking priority over 
performance.  Maybe a little mis-alignment is no problem, but it seems that 
pinning problems occur more often in these situations, and if the hammer is 
moving sideways, does it flex under hard blows?  Is traveling a voicing issue?  
Pinning is. 
Regards, 
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html