Discussion Posts

Thanks, Terry, and great to hear from you. I'm checking with Will Truitt at whose shop the piano is. ------------------------------ William Ballard RPT WBPS Saxtons River VT 802-869-9107 "Our lives contain a thousand springs and dies if one be gone ...

James, Supply 88 has something that I think is as good as or better than VS Profelt. Mark Purney let me test some and it was very good. Sent from my iPhone

Hello Bill, I have a set of 12 WNG adjustable perimeter bolts that I bought from Jahn years ago. Please tell me if you still need them. Cheers, Terry Flynn ------------------------------ Terence Flynn owner Great Barrington MA (203) 512-7482 ...

All- Curious if someone knows a supplier that makes a fitted lid cover for concert grands to reduce glare on stage- I find this vendor. https://www.miqralon.com/ Miqralon Concert Veil How to cover a ...

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions . I used Protek CLP on the hammer flanges since most only had 1 to 1 1/4 swings using the swing rest . I have a bottle of Profelt that I will try . Not sure if Schaff sells it but I bought it from Pianotek before they ...

James: I worked on a Bechstein recently, also rebuilt, where rebuilder used felt on the under levers that was a bit too thick, so early lift. The felt on the damper tray was also a bit thick, so I decided to live with that. Damper heads are pretty light, ...

Here's your thought experiment. Here are two FW max curves. The red line is Stanwood FW Max, the purple line is a FW Max I made up. Questions: On the purple line, assuming AR and BW are held constant, is the inertia higher or lower at note 88 ...

Need some help to regulate the action of an 1877 C Bechstein that was rebuilt . rep springs need more tension but I also need to know how I adjust the hammer blow distance since there are wooden rockers on the keys with 2 screws. Damper lift from the ...

As I recall, Nick had assistance on the Stanwood references with his spreadsheet because he doesn't use that method. I did help him with some of the explanations when he first started adding that stuff but he ended up consulting with someone else to ...

I always use hot hide glue. Sent from Jeffs Piano Services

It's interesting David, how your FWMax are lower than the Stanwood FWMax in the first six bass notes, then higher throughout most of the curve with weights increasing as you get higher into the treble. Today I put your Max FW, Stanwood's, and Gravagne's ...

David, Thank you for a great class on Voicing Fundamentals: Finding Your Own Voice. As someone who has only been in piano technology for 6 months, this class gave a wonderful framework to start looking at voicing. Looking forward to seeing you in ...

Thanks Tim for attending. I've submitted proposals for these classes again for Des Moines next year and decided to separate out the building an excel spreadsheet into a separate class in which I invite people to bring their laptops and it will just be ...

I attended all three classes and very much enjoyed and benefited from them all. Thank you! ------------------------------ Tim Foster RPT New Oxford PA (470) 231-6074 ------------------------------

Thanks for the recommendations, all. Exactly what I was hoping for. And I have all of them. Yes! ------------------------------ Geoff Sykes, RPT Los Angeles CA ------------------------------

This may be helpful re. David's comments about tension and compression in the hammer. This image was shown in the Able seminar on hammer making. It shows the distortion of a grid on the hammer felt as it is being pressed. ------------------------------ ...

There is still plenty of width at the top of the hammer that the shift should not be an issue. I do a full side taper, starting just below the crown. You will have less crowding of hammers and few if any passing issues. You will lose more weight at ...

I’ve used ordinary wood glue. But kid you have it readily available, hot hide glue is good, too. Wim Sent from my iPhone

One that sticks ;) I'm only half-joking. There are lots of things that will work for this application -- PVA glue, PVC-E, Roo Clear, hot hide glue, fish glue, cold hide glue... The latter few are the easiest to reverse should that ever be necessary, ...

hot animal glue ------------------------------ Parker Leigh RPT Winchester VA (540) 722-3865 ------------------------------

Greetings -- I am about to replace the back rail, hammer rest rail and music desk felts on a small grand. What kind of glue would you recommend I use for these locations? Thanks -- ------------------------------ Geoff Sykes, RPT Los Angeles CA ...

Unless I'm changing hammer heads only, I always pick hammers for tone first regardless of the weight requirements. Then I adapt the action ratio to the hammer set if changes are needed. There is a tonal reason that hammers are heavier in the bass than ...

Ok, I understand what you are saying about how the mass of the string and the mass of the corresponding hammer relates to the power of the hammer strike. Before you test out your hammer samples, I would think that the AR of the action needs to be in the ...

Something else to keep in mind while choosing hammers, especially light hammers. Hammer to string impact is called an "elastic collision", two elastic bodies colliding. In an elastic collision, the maximum energy transfer occurs when the mass of the ...

Here's an illustration of the low profile hammer I was using. I think I've increased the spec now to 8 mm. But I firmly believe it's tonally better to achieve lighter weight on a soft hammer by controlling the profile rather than the width. The hammer ...

Wow, very good to know Will. Thank you! Do you know the approximate hammer weights that result from cutting the width down to .410? I just measured some Abel, Ronsen, and Renner Blue Point hammers. Thickness of the hammers vary a lot from .435" up to ...

Since you are ordering from Ray, you can take advantage of a service he offers (I found this out from Ed McMorrow). Normally his hammers unprepped are cut at a width of about .435". I had him cut the width of the hammer at around .410". I do my own ...

David, when you say that you like the profile of the hammer felt on C4 to be about 8mm, do you mean measuring from the top of the molding to the top of the felt at the strike point, or do you measuring from the top of the inner felt of the hammer to the ...

Thank you, David Stanwood for these recommendations of hammer type and procedure. Indeed, I am going to order a set of the Ronsen Bacon Felt hammers to use as samples on this piano. I have samples of all the other hammers I am going to try except the ...

Agree with David S on the tonal characteristics of lightweight and soft hammers. To achieve this, however, I think it's important that it be done through the profile (thickness of the felt over the molding) rather than by, say, just tapering a hammer ...

Hammer weight levels have a fundamental effect on voicing quality. In the early 1980s I learned that soft light hammers give a very wide dynamic palette of tone color that is especially beautiful in the pianissimo range. I also find that the measured ...

Start by measuring action spread, then key ratio, then finally hammer weight in grams of each end section hammer. Measure knuckle distance. Original would have been 15 or 15.5 mm. A modern Steinway 17 mm shank will greatly effect touch weight. Hammer ...

Thanks for next steps to your approach and the attached article. I've been boning up on my algebra this year, so I am into the math. It will probably take me a number of days to do this work, as I also sell classical guitars, which takes me away from ...

Hammer weight is the most important parameter to choose. Any piano made prior to 1930 would have likely had hammers far lighter than those commonly available today. If a mellow tone is sought then Ronsen/Weickert is the wayprep go. If you need more ...

OK once you've done that (be sure to write the FW numbers on the key buttons, that will save some time later), dry hang hammers on the samples you've set up. Measure the BW. The target BW for this phase is 38 grams (midrange standard, if you have a ...

Yes David, I know how to measure the DW, UW, and BW, and I am familiar with the Stanwood approach, and I also have the Nick Granagne AGP Program. And I know how to measure strike weight and front key weight. I'll start working on adjusting those front ...

Hi David L. I also will follow with interest your online demo. Your classes sound great, going in for another shoulder surgery and will have lots of time to follow our forum. Fenton ------------------------------ Fenton Murray --------------- ...

Horace, The OP did not list Steinway hammers as an option. Of the options that were listed, I stand by my choice. If Steinway hammers were listed as an option, that would be a different discussion. They were not, and I'm assuming the OP had a reason ...

Weigh the existing hammers on a good digital scale. My personal choice would be Abel Naturals, heavily weight relieved. I am not in favor of moving capstan lines. If your goal is a modern system contact Reyburn and have a topstack built to modern ...

Ben, How many sets of Steinway hammers have you worked on, total? Yes, they have changed over the years. So have everyone else's. That argument fails on its premise. Besides, for decades it's been "Renner for Hamburg"'; and, NY is still making its ...

Steinway owns Renner, so doesn't that technically make Renner parts Steinway parts? I'm being a little facetious, but in all seriousness, it's important to remember that even the current hammers coming out of the NY Steinway factory are very different ...

Hi, David, Perfect! Thanks, David! Kind regards. Horace On 7/22/2024 8:21 PM, David Love via Piano Technicians Guild wrote: > Hi Horace, no problem, we're going to do it all out front here, step by step. Just follow along. It's much easier than ...

Hi Horace, no problem, we're going to do it all out front here, step by step. Just follow along. It's much easier than people make it. No action ratio measurements, no strikeweight ratio calculations, just three numbers FW, SW, BW and if you don't ...

I have to look I just got home to California Sent from my iPhone

Hi, David, Thanks! I didn't word my request very well. I already have a system that (for me) works very well. What I was hoping is that you and Joe would be willing to share your method with a larger group than was able to be at the convention. While ...

OK do you know how to measure the Front weight (Stanwood method) and balance weight (DW+UW)/2? You'll need to measure the strike weight as well but if you don't like to take the hammers off the rail then the hammer weight does just as well and just means ...

Sure Horace, let's do one at a time though. ------------------------------ David Love RPT www.davidlovepianos.com davidlovepianos@comcast.net 415 407 8320 ------------------------------

OK do you know how to measure the Front weight (Stanwood method) and balance weight? You'll need to measure the hammer weight as well but that just means putting the hammers on a digital scale. ------------------------------ David Love RPT www.davidlovepianos.com ...

Youtube is most helpful in making suggestions and it directed me to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuCIQKRQgU0 this evening. This video demonstrates the immediacy that Nate Reyburn referred to with CyberTuner and the excellence of their analysis ...

That sounds great David. Let's do it. It's very nice of you to offer to do this. My schedule is flexible, so I can do the public demo any time that is convenient for you. Joe ------------------------------ Joe Burros Cell: 646-410-7174 jbcello@gmail.com ...