Pianotech

  • 1.  Steinway advice needed

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-21-2024 02:10

    A dealer I work for recently received three recently rebuilt Steinway Bs, from the same rebuilder.

    Two are very nice and only needed a bit of touch-up on regulation and some tuning.

    One is unpleasantly heavy.  The bass is just over 65 grams DW, the tenor is about 60 grams and the treble is 50 to 60 grams.  The keys on this one received extensive plugging and re-leading.  Complete lubrication didn't change much of the DW.  I can't increase after-touch more. All three pianos seem to have the same set of somewhat large hammers.  Hammers have been tapered.

    What parameters should I look for?  Are these possibly the wrong shanks for this year?  Did they move the capstains around from year to year?



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    Blaine Hebert RPT
    Duarte CA
    (626) 390-0512
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  • 2.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-21-2024 08:59

    Blaine, 

    Any possibility of more specific information 🤔 

    Hard to assess anything without age, etc.

    Peter Grey Piano Doctor 



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    Peter Grey
    Stratham NH
    (603) 686-2395
    pianodoctor57@gmail.com
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  • 3.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-21-2024 09:44

    Hi Blaine,

    It would really help to know Down Weight, Up Weight, and Front Weight.    



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    David Stanwood
    stanwoodpiano.com
    stanwood@tiac.net
    508-693-1583
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  • 4.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-22-2024 02:21

    I will take measurements when I return to the store.

    Thanks



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    Blaine Hebert RPT
    Duarte CA
    (626) 390-0512
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-22-2024 07:19

    Abd comparative age data too 😉 

    Peter Grey Piano Doctor 



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    Peter Grey
    Stratham NH
    (603) 686-2395
    pianodoctor57@gmail.com
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Member
    Posted 02-22-2024 08:21

    if the pianos are all there try swapping out some of the keysticks whippens and hammers to see if things improve. measure the action spreads on all 3 pianos as well and compare the weights of the hammers using a gram scale . maybe its the parts or the action geometry . there was a sTEINWAY HERE that was loaded with key weights it was rebuilt and played great with its new action parts and new key sticks. if all else fails try to reach out to Scott Jones who made Touch Rails



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    James Kelly
    Owner- Fur Elise Piano Service
    Pawleys Island SC
    (843) 325-4357
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-23-2024 20:00

    How does it regulate?  If you have a blow distance of 46mm, and let-off of 2mm, how much dip is needed to get 1mm of after touch (.040").  Sometimes just looking at how a piano regulates will show you there is a geometry problem. For example, if you only have 9.2mm of dip to get 1mm aftertouch, and blow distance is 46mm, you probably have a geometry problem. If you have 10-10.5mm dip, probably a hammer weight problem.  It may not tell you exactly where the problem is, but it is a simple way to get pointed in the right direction. 

    Another quick thing to check is distance from hammer center to knuckle center.  If it's 16mm or less, it points to the older Steinway action, which was optimized for older, lighter hammers than what we have today.  Again, not conclusive, but it might give you a direction to look.



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    Tom Dowell
    Hulbert Piano
    tom@hulbertpiano.com
    262-221-0792
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  • 8.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Posted 02-27-2024 05:55
    Measure action ratio. It should be 5-5.2. Correct it if necessary. Than regulation and balancing will go smoothly
    Alexander Brusilovsky


    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Steinway advice needed

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-24-2024 07:34

    Hi Blaine,

    There's not really enough information for a conclusion here, only educated guesses. Since there are three B's and two were evidently ok in the downweight area, my guess is this is a geometry problem, a weigh-off problem, or a geometry problem. Or combination of those. My questions would be:

    1. What is the downweight and upweight of a few notes? 1, 20 and 40 would be interesting.

    2. What year is the offending B?

    Yes, Steinway sometimes didn't place the capstans in optimal position. The reason is they didn't get the plate in the right place sometimes relative to the front of the piano. After the new keyset is placed in a piano with that issue, they plop the stack in place with standard bore hammers so that the hammer strike is correct, but the error all goes into the capstan positition, which causes the key ratio to be something between a little wrong to wildly wrong.

    Since this may be a geometry issue, I'd suggest you fill out our geometry web form at:

    https://www.reyburn.com/geometry.html

    This is a free service, we can analyze the geometry and let you know possible fixes.

    I'd also like to know the spread on 1 and 88. That's sometimes of spec and contributes to thw problems.

    I hope I can help, best regards,



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    Dean Reyburn, RPT
    Reyburn Pianoworks
    Reyburn CyberTuner
    1-616-498-9854
    dean@reyburn.com
    www.reyburnpianoworks.com
    www.cybertuner.com
    www.reyburntools.com
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/dean.reyburn
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