Initially, I thought the same as you. Yes, it is somewhat difficult to remove and replace a hammer butt assembly in order to do travel, especially if you haven't done it that often. However, based on experience prepping at least 75 uprights to a high degree (as described in my articles, "Taking the Upright Piano Seriously"), I can say without hesitation that it is worth the trouble. Just bite the bullet and do it. Being it's a Schimmel, the process won't be that bad, as at least the spring will keep the flange at an angle so the screw can be retained in place during removal and replacement, with a bit of care.
At a recent convention where I taught a class based on Taking the Upright Piano Seriously, I was in the room prepping for the class and a Beckstein technical rep popped in. He commented that they take uprights seriously in Germany. Seeing that I was checking travel, he said, "You won't find anything." He was right, I found two barely noticeable hammers that traveled just a wee bit.
We are so used to American pianos, where even the most expensive never saw a bit of travel paper, and whose hammers have never seen a needle (let along had one inserted), that we assume it isn't worth the trouble. The reason American upright pianos (and most of the grands) stopped being prepped well in the factory was based entirely on cutting expenses. As a result, our expectations for uprights became very low, indeed. Which is why I went to all that trouble to write those articles. It doesn't have to be that way.
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Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm@unm.eduhttp://fredsturm.nethttp://www.artoftuning.com"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-15-2019 09:12
From: Jim Ialeggio
Subject: Picky Hammer/String alignment and mating on Uprights
I don't usually mess with uprights to the degree I do with Grands. However, I have a really nice Schimmel upright which deserves the work, which I'm preparing for sale. Question is, mating, traveling and alignment are such a pain in the ass in an upright, that the quality of the work suffers to a degree that that resulting work does not represent a good enough improvement to justify doing the work at all.
Is there any experience from a picky tech out there, on uprights, that can get around the shear inaccessibility of making fine adjustments to an upright hammer flange. I'm thinking, for this piano, which is worth it, I should pull the whips, to get that access. I have tried working with the whips in place, and its just too cumbersome and inaccurate. Thoughts?
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Jim Ialeggio
grandpianosolutions.com
Shirley, MA
978 425-9026
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