Regulation cheating

[A440A at aol.com]

<<  to improve the performance of a 1950s Baldwin drop action piano.
The customer doesn't have the money for a full regulation.  She complains of
poor repetition and keys bottoming out without making a tone.   
Shorten the hammer blow for more lost motion?  Alter the checking?  >>

       Triage.  First and biggest thing, (assuming all the flange screws are 
tight), is lost motion.  After deciding on a blow distance, bring lost motion 
down to the minimum.  You may be surprised to find there is aftertouch in 
there, after all, and the back checking is much improved without any time spent on 
it.  
        After than, you can decide whether there is time(budget) enough to 
either set let-off or dip.  Ideally you could do both. 
    If you haven't broken their bank, by now, cast your eyes upon the 
hammers.  You can remove most of the dead felt on either side of the strikepoint 
without altering the actual hammer length, and a quick pass of a hot iron on a 
thin strip of damp flannel will take a lot of the snarl out of those hammers.  
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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