Frank,

Thanks for the archive information in the piano Tech room. I am feeling way better about having my broken Knabe reglued having read about the different methods of glueing inner and outer rims at manufacture.

Still, I need to ask where do you start to make the corrections to the action when you have a Steinway B,..that feels heavy to play. It's exhausting and is making my hands hurt if I play for an extended period of time.

The hammers were replaced 12 years ago with a slighter larger Steinway hammers because the original size at manufacture required was no longer in production. My tech would only install Steinway hammers in a Steinway piano.

He has said that there is no room to add any weight to the front of the keys to improve the touch.

From what I am reading...a very small adjustment in the action, can dramatically change the geometry, and resistance, without touching the key weights.

Can the action be sent to someone to correct,or does it need to be done while it is in the piano?

My hammers are in really good shape and don't need to be replaced except that they are taking a lot of effort to swing!

Would voicing and reshaping take enough of the weight off to improve the touch, making them more like the weight of the original hammers, or am I stuck replacing the whole set of hammers.

Thanks for the expert advice on the Forum. You people are THE Best!

Skyblanche
P.S. My pianist friends don't want to play the Steinway anymore, prefering to play the much older and worn out Knabe D...that just went to the rebuilder.

Skyblanche, how old is the Steinway B. The pre 1936 actions were considered by many as feeling heavy. If your Tech put in new Steinway hammers( heavier) that did'nt match the weight of the old hammers, then you might have a weight issue. He/she also should have weighed the down weight and up weight after the hammers were hung, the action lubricated and fine regulated, to get an overall picture of the pianos touch weight.If it was now very heavy, he/she would know there was a problem now that wasn't there before. Also, if there was that much lead in the keys to begin with, then it sounds like a geometry issue. The capstan line may need to be moved a bit, usually 1/16 th of an inch does the trick.

Weight of hammers is very important...There is no grand where touchweight can't be done..but it need work..shaving and voicing for sure don't make a touchweight... solvation of that problem is to make centers in hammershanks a litte more easy..and to easy the keys...I mean bushing of keys... Are the hammerheads cutted? the wood I mean? there is many possibilities to make touchweight well.. sorry for my language mistakes..I'm writting from Poland