Hi Arlie, Hmm. You say it's new. When this kind of "magical re-misalignment" happens, I usually suspect string grooves as the culprit. If the hammers are grooved, and you move the hammer, the grooves and the strings will want to mate up again in a manner that makes Romeo and Juliet look like Felix and Oscar. The torsional force on the hammer as the grooves find the strings on fortissimo blows can cause the flange to realign, in addition to eventually ruining the flange pinning. The solution here is, of course, to file the hammer after moving it. This leaves only a heartbroken Romeo, as Juliet has been filed away (how unromantic is that?). Well, actually, it leaves Romeo and his two amorous but unlucky cousins, Wayne and Augie (assuming it's a trichord). If the piano really is new, as in absolutely no string cuts at all (true, well, umm, virgin felt), then the above fanciful scenario would not apply, possibly to the relief of certain fainthearted readers. If those readers prefer a crime drama instead, we can substitute: "After he got out of jail, he slunk back to the same old neighborhood, emptyhanded, with nothing to do, no job and no skills, smoking endlessly and hanging out on the same dilapidated street corner with the same cast of good-for-nothing hoodlums. What did you expect to happen?" Oops. Back to reality. I have seen this re-misalignment happen in one other circumstance, which is not likely to be the case here in that Kawai quality control is good, and you would have probably already noticed it if it were the culprit. But here it is just in case: If the hammer in question is adjacent to the horn or a plate protrusion such as a low strut, it may in certain instances barely glance off of the plate, causing realignment. Not likely, but I've seen it.... Good luck in hunting it down, Joe DeFazio Pittsburgh On Feb 17, 2009, at 5:03 PM, pianotech-request at ptg.org wrote: > > From: Arlie Rauch <adarpub at midrivers.com> > Date: February 17, 2009 4:03:14 PM EST > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Subject: [pianotech] Misaligned in Montana > Reply-To: pianotech at ptg.org > > > I was called to tune a new Kawai grand, and there was a complaint > about one hammer. It was striking its neighboring string when > affected by the una corda (only this one hammer did so). I loosened > the offending flange screw, repositioned the flange/hammer slightly, > and all worked well (this has often worked well in the past on other > pianos). Several weeks later I hear the problem is back. > > I don't want to repeat the same procedure with the same > unsatisfactory results. I am thinking of what should be done: shim > the flange, bend the shank, remove and remount the hammer a degree > different, reposition the flange again and apply locktite, etc. > What will bring about the proper and lasting result? Any proper and > lasting ideas? > > Arlie D Rauch > Glendive, MT -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090217/4a15d90b/attachment.html>
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