Ok guys . I'll be the experiential contrarian
Not all our boards produced are RC & S but I find no difference to strike line vulnerability. My Own Steinway B is RC&S has a 15 rib fanned rib scale, massive bass curve cut-off and a beefed up tone/treble belly brace bar. It benefitted greatly from a significant strike line change. Perhaps our recipes are not the same. It has amazing tuning stability, wonderful sound.
IMHO and what my experience is is that hey all benefit from some change both in power and sustain, at least in my shop. So I change the strike line. I think it could be a combination of things. Sure the board parameters. Yes and perhaps the plate. New B and D plates have been altered and are way less problematic.
I have wondered if it has something to do with hammer to string contact time as most after market modern hammers installed are not the same light weight devices originally installed up till the 1960's? or so. Usually a 1 to 2 gram difference. In the treble this is significant.
Next, one that comes to mind is the way we all bore the hammers. Original hammers and shanks over centered a good bit. Our shop does not do it this way. My formula is :String height minus center pin height minus 1 mm in each section. This probably pushes the strike point further out away from the sweet spot.
Original stwy hammers have approx. a 1 degree rake toward the tail of the piano. I don't do this. So...the question is, what was there idea? Many pianos prepped hammers this way.
Most of the hammers I install are low compresion hammers
At any rate Paul ...questions remain.
Dale
I've found the same thing. Strike line deviation being necessary on
riginal boards but when I replace the board on the same piano with a RC&S
oard the strike line seems to straighten out, or the curve becomes
nnecessary. What's that about?
David Love
ww.davidlovepianos.com
illiam Truitt wrote:
I too have staggered the strike line on Steinway grands and other pianos
to find the sweet spot and get the best tone. So let's ask the question
of the why of that - what is going on in the plate and string interface
in relation to the action that requires something other than a straight
line to achieve the best tone?
ook at where the farthest deviation from a straight line is.
ee, that looks like the most universally problematic part of
teinway, and other largely panel supported crown, scales. How
an there possibly be tonal problems in the killer octave?
ust be the plate casting.
As I periodically repeat, I find this phenomenon to not be
bvious in low compression and adequately supported RC&S
ystems. I still check now and then, but find the difference,
f I can detect any at all, to not be worth the trouble to
eviate from the straight line on a new RC&S board. On an
riginal board, it's likely obvious enough to be worth the
rouble.
I think it's primarily the soundboard.
on N
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