Grand Regulation - - A Checklist - Part 1

QUIZ

1) Does regulating the jack height to the balancier affect the strength of the repetition spring?

2) Does regulating the let-off affect the backcheck distance?

3) Which of the following affect the amount of after-touch: key height, blow, jack alignment, jack height, let-off, drop, backcheck, repetition spring?

Do you know for certain as a particular grand regulation procedure is performed, how it will affect the other procedures? Or which of the other procedures will alter the regulation just completed? For instance, in the jack to knuckle alignment, changing the jack will alter the let-off and the amount of aftertouch. But if the capstan is changed, the jack will have to be realigned again.

Say that you are about to completely recondition the action of a grand. Do you have an orderly, logical approach figured out so that nothing will be overlooked with a minimal amount of doubling back, wasting time? Action reconditioning can be much simplified by using a thorough, detailed checklist. The advantages are obvious. Most of us cannot take the time to go over an action in one sitting. Interruptions are bound to happen, whether it be for lunch, overnight or for two weeks. Frequently there is a loss of memory as to what has been done, where you are now, and what was next. With a checklist, you need only to mark where you are when the interruption occurs.

Unless grand regulation is something one does frequently, one probably does not have the proper sequence memorised. Manuals are available from the different manufacturers, but none of them give a complete list of things to do. Neither do they agree on the sequence to be used. For instance, one manufacturer says to level the keys and lay the dip first. Whereas another says to regulate the jack, let-off and blow first, and then level the keys and lay the dip. Many more differences can be found, too.

 

In general, are not all grand actions made similar today? Granted, they may have different designs of whippens, action rails, sostenuto systems, etc., but they all have parts working in the same functions (minor exceptions). Therefore, it should be possible to create a checklist to be used on all grand actions. One which has all of the different steps one must go through to properly recondition and regulate in the most efficient and logical way.

 

Here is a 50- point checklist for grands which does just that:

I.Keys & Keyframe

 

(1) Tighten all screws, remove action and keys

(2) Sand keybed, apply talc or slipspray.

(3) Seat action on keyframe, repair stripped screw holes

(4) Bed keyframe, backrail, frontrail, studs; sand as necessary

(5) Align action rail distance if needed (whippen/hammer center pin)

(6) Remove action, polish front and centre rail pins, clean keyframe

(7) Put keys back on frame, check centre hole for loose/tight, correct

(8) Check buttons, ease or rebush as needed

(9) Check keys at frontrail pins, ease or rebush as needed

(10) Clean and buff keytops and fronts

(11) Square keytops, check for war page

(12) Adjust key height and level all 88

(13) Lay dip, at least 0.400 for now (0.450 for Steinway)

(14) Space keys

II. Top Action (off of keyframe)

(15) Check action centers, repin or shrink as needed

(16) Travel hammers

(17) Check hammer angle/shank warpage, correct

(18) Reshape hammers

(19) Regraphite jack top and balancier window

(20) Space jack in window

(21) Round and file knuckles, needle if hard

(22) Clean repetition spring and groove (Steinway, Yamaha, Bosendorfer)

(23) Round whippen felt if needed

(24) Polish capstans

(25) Clean knuckles and backchecks

Ill.Alignments (installation back on keyframe)

(26) Align action frame in piano (adjust keyframe stop block)

(27) Align hammers to strings

(28) Align and square whippens to knuckle

(29) Align jack to knuckle core

(30) Align and square backchecks to hammer tails

 

IV. Touch

 

(31) Jack heigth to the balancier

(32) Blow

(33) Let-off

(34) Drop

(35) Aftertouch

(36) Backcheck distance

(37) Repetition spring

(38) Check gram weight resistance all 88 keys

(39) Adjust key stoprail

V. Dampers and pedals

(40) Lube and releather trapwork

(41) Check damper guide rail, ease or rebush as needed

(42) Check damper lift from key (‘h blow)

(43) Check damper lift from lifter rail

(44) Adjust damper pedal rod length

(45) Adjust damper pedal stop

(46) Adjust damper stoprail

(47) Check string level/damper seating

(46) Sostenuto pedal rod length/ knife angle

(49) Sostenuto assembly (tabs) aligned to knife

(50) Shift pedal rod length and stop screw

A pretty extensive list. I am sure that ...

 

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Hammersmith Odeon / Eventim Apollo - Yamaha CFIII

 

 

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https://www.professionalpianotunerlondon.co.uk/post/hammersmith-odeon-eventim-apollo-yamaha-cfiii

 

 

 

Testing The Tuning Tests

Some of the most useful information to come out of the last years use of the proposed testing procedure is an objective analysis of the skill levels of the testees, a concept of what a good tuning is and some of the most effective tuning evaluation procedures I know of.

If you are in a testing situation, or just wish to be able to perform an analysis of your own work these procedures can be helpful. If you do not have testing equipment and wish to objectively look at your own tuning you will have to do the tuning and then walk away from it for an hour or two to let your mind rest and acquire a new perspective on tuning.

It is of no consequence which fork you use or which “temperament octave” you prefer. The analysis of tempering will require a minimum of twenty-five notes for potential error elimination. The only strictures on this two-octave placement are those imposed by the piano and your ears. The two octaves should not cross over wound strings if at all possible and the range should not be such that the beats of sixths and thirds become too fast for accurate assessment.

For this purpose the biggest or the best is better, but biggest does not necessarily mean the best, so choose an instrument that is easy to tune and fine for listening and all that might imply for you.

Pick almost any notes, high, middle or low and using that note as a pivot point, check the two fourths, the two fifths and especially the two thirds that revolve around that one note and compare them all but in pairs, not mixed. If all appears well with that note and its intervals, then go to the next note above or below and continue this form of analysis until the entire two octaves have been validated and possible changes noted but not necessarily made yet.

As an example, C4 is the pivot note. Listen very carefully to the C4-F4 and G3-C4 fourths several times. What is being sought is a variation of the beat rate that is less than acceptable. Within practical limits, they should be identical. If no change is desired, then switch to the related fifths, C4-G4 and F3-C4, again played several times, seeking improper tempering. It is well to make good use of the third/sixth test of fourths and the sixth/tenth test of fifths to help define beat rates. The more difficult but highly informative conjunctive thirds G#3-C4 and C4-E4 must have the 4 to 5 beat rate ratio. This is one of the more helpful tests in that it has a balance that remains constant and once the ear is attuned to the relationship, a minor error assumes major proportions.

Each octave must be tested three ways. First the third/tenth test will verify the degree of expansion, second ...

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Music Quality Stability Tone Touch Tune Cost Beauty Durability Serviceability

Music is the ultimate goal of the piano, an objective that sometimes gets lost among the tunings, regulations, voicings, etc., etc., etc. At the same time, we must be concerned with the quality and stability of our work and of that of the instruments. Tone, touch and tune are our daily bread, as they are for the musicians, if in somewhat differing manners.

Of great importance to all is cost, beauty and durability, but the final stone in my echelon of priorities is essentially ours and that of the manufacturers or rebuilders: serviceability. In the designing and fabrication of pianos, and during rebuilding, certain practices, procedures and oversights creep in that can have a dramatic effect on one aspect of serviceability - tuneability. The next time you tune a piano that is pleasure to tune, you can be assured that many factors contributed to that quality. Here are listed few of the possible sources of trouble on those pianos that are not as tuneable.

The tuning pins must be round, with a consistent diameter and radius. Poor pins can be too long, too short, out of round, change dimension from pin to pin and from the top to the bottom of the thread. They can be poorly plated, the threads poorly cut, the metal too soft, the holes out of place and too small for the larger gauges, and finally, they may have unsquare tips. The tuning pin may appear to be a very simple piece of metal, but when carefully considered, its complexity emerges to demand our attention.

Tuning pins that are too tight require much effort that could best be used to control the pitch of the strings. These pins leave one with less than the best feel for the block and what the pin is doing in the block. Tuning pins that are too loose lack ease of control, long term durability and stability of the tuning. Pin block materials and construction need not be discussed here except to define our requirements; rigidity, dimensional stability, resilience and durability. If made and installed with care, all else is fulfilled. What is required at the interface of the tuning pin and the pin block is a slightly different matter. Wood and metal should come together with out any other matter at all; no resins, oils, moisture or carbonized wood. Some tall orders, but the factors of greatest importance are the care in drilling the holes and the cleanliness of the pin and the stringer.

I have seen beckets (the part of the string that goes through the tuning pin) so long that they have been wound part way around the tuning pin in the opposite direction by an adjacent pin. This is a little long; the proper length is through the pin but not out the other side. The reasons for this are that overly long beckets make repinning that block difficult in the extreme because the becket will not come out of the pin without destroying the coil. The overly long becket represents a painful hazard to the fingers when moving the tuning hammer and, finally, it looks tacky.

Coils that are not tight against each other leave a pin too high, tend to cause tuning instabilities and lack the beauty of neatness. On the finer gauges, a becket can be pulled out of the hole over a period of time. This is why old piano makers put four and five coils in the treble; also, the holes in the pins were bigger than the holes in present pins. Three coils are sufficient; two and a half are not.

 

Tuning pins that have been left too high present several problems to the tuner, not the least of which is tuning instability. These pins will not twist any less than lowered pins, but the twist can be ...

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Tuning Instability

In speaking to our customers about what causes a piano to go out of tune, the most common subject is the weather. A change in temperature will have little or no effect on the tune of the instrument except that most temperature changes are directly coupled to a change in humidity. Humidity change is the major factor when pianos are tuned two or more times a year.

The next most common factor is string stretch. It takes very little stretch, as we all well know from what a new string does, to make a piano sound horrid. Several years of tunings are needed to get all the stretch out of new strings. The newer pianos seem to go out because of settling of the structure as well as the stretch of the strings, but I have no proof of that.

Time itself, with the changes of weather, string stretch and structure, all cause the tuning to slide downward.

Hard playing and especially hard hammers will knock out the tuning of even the best tuner and the best piano.

One factor that seems to be rather neglected is the degree of sensitivity of the client. Some pianists are on the phone the instant the piano thinks about going out of tune, others can let the instrument go for ten years and not know the difference.

After the piano is settled in and the weather, stretch, age, time and customer demands are compensated for any real problems of the instrument itself can be considered.

One common cause of tuning instability is pinblock-back separation, where the pinblock is being pulled away from the back posts of uprights by the tension of the strings. This is most easily spotted by looking at the top of the assembly or from the bottom of the block. When the sides begin to separate from the back a weak piano plate and back can flex more than planned by the designers; tapping with the knuckles along the side will produce a hollow sound where the glue has failed.

A good number of pianos were produced with aluminium / magnesium plates that over extended periods do not have the rigidity and stamina of cast iron. This is a chronic problem without any real solution for that instrument.

When the smaller pianos were in their developmental stages, many of their unique problems were yet to be solved. One of which was determining the minimum weight and the structural rigidity for long-term integrity. Some of these early instruments tend to be ...

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