Hi Ben,
Extremely simple, dependable method. No extra expensive tools required. Action remains intact.
Start by anchoring the back of your hand against the pinblock, your fingers on the keysticks surrounding the glides. Using the pinblock for leverage, flex your hand and press down on each glide bolt area to see where the glides are. If the keys in that area move and flex downward, you'll know the glides aren't touching the keyframe. You can depress a key, and put a dip block on it to help you see this.
Check to see if the front rail is floating. Squeeze the front rail to the keybed and look for any movement.
Starting from the bass end, turn the glides up slightly. You should see the keys move/wink downward as the glides loose contact with the keybed.
Flex the keys at each glide to ensure there is no contact. The keys should flex at each section. You can also do the tap test.
Then, starting with the second glide in turn the glide down until the keys wink up. When they wink up, your glide has made contact. Using a 6" ruler, and looking dead ahead at the keyfronts helps to see this. Do the flex test, and the knock test to ensure the glide is solidly bedded.
Move to the next glide. This time, you can turn the glide while knocking to hear the progression- no knock-> a little knock-> louder knock-> no knock. Do the flex test, and then check the previous glide.
Keep going with this, checking the previous glides after you finish the current one. If a previous glide is knocking, you either have to back off the current one, or turn down the knocking one slightly.
When you finish, engage the damper pedal and check again. If a glide knocks with the pedal depressed, you'll need to turn it down a little more.
As you go, check to make sure the front rail isn't floating. But remember of course on a Steinway the cheek ends of the front rail tap a little without the cheekblocks fastened down.
It took me longer to write this than it takes to do it. To help you with the sense of where the glides are at first, pull the action out and tip it up, balancing it on the backrail (don't let the dropscrews touch the stretcher!) and look at the glide bolts. You can even use a straight edge to see how much they protrude from flush.
And always, when reinstalling the action, you should hold the front end up so the glides don't smash into the front of the piano.
Hope all this helps. it takes practice but it's extremely simple, quick, and there's no need to purchase any tool fancier or more expensive than your glide bolt turner.
Good luck.
Original Message------
Hello all,
I was re-studying methods of adjusting the glide studs in grands. I don't fancy removing 20 keys to adjust the glide studs with the "paper"method, and I'm not so keen on knocking either -- suppose Im having trouble differentiating the sounds of the knocks.
Does anyone know of an easier way of adjusting the glide studs other than these two?
Thanks,
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Benjamin Sanchez
Professional Piano Services
(805)315-8050
www.professional-piano-services.com
BenPianoPro@comcast.net
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