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I have a case with Steinway D where I could not take the action from the piano as something was under the action. I was trying to get it out like 30 minutes because I did not wont to break a hammer. Finaly I got it out and found that a brass screw was under the actin. I thought it was from the lid, but it was not. I dont know how and from where it got there. Anyway I got a report that few first hammers are knocking know. My first thougt was that I managed to unglue the hammers although I was very careful, suposing they touched the pinblock as the action schould go a little bit up because of the screw, and the second case could be that I have to regulaze the glide bolts. Now as I read the posts from Kamin I am a little bit afraid to do that, I would rather glue the hammers to the shanks.... But the question is, is it possible that because of the screw under the action, the keyframe could bend so much that now iti is neccesary to reregulate the glide bolts?
P.S. Sorry for my bad English....

Hello, your English is OK to me !

I dont believe that this screw have warped the frame, it happens more often with global too much stress( AND -I suspect - not tight enough left pedal regulation)
sometime also not enough pressure at the glide bolts can warp the frame also, think of a paper sheet that should be warped front one direction and at the same time front to back, there are reactions from the stress, even if a keyframe is not exactly like a paper sheet.

I have read that NY Steinway keyboards are not shaped the same at the front than the German ones, so the regulation process may differ.

There are some grands that have a hollow shaped keyframe (reverse of Steinways) probably for stability reasons when the keyframes did not have glide bolts.
We have different designs in differnt brands and that is always interesting to compare and to know how the things where setup to begin with.
There is not an universal way to regulate keyboards. Eventually there is some universal methods to check the bedding, but the action and keys weight is distributed differently depending of the brand/model, then the checking of the weight/pressure may differ.

I send you a PM about it..




PS I have a customer at 400 Km from there, who was ready to sell his 190 Grotrian Steinway 3 years old because the action was stiff and heavy. Glide bolts have been turned way too much... He corrected that in line by phone with me. ( A pro tuner came afterthat and fine tuned the rest)

A colleague stated told me that the glide bolts are "regulated at the factory". Essentially mostly ith the trainings done with the factory techs you cna learn to regulate them with similar method than the one they use.

You describe this as a knocking sound - which should rule out voicing. Knocking would be caused by two parts hitting each other. "With the action out of the piano the sound is gone." Problem could be related to key/damper action contact. Have your technician check for loose or missing felts at end of key and damper underlever. Possibly contact between backcheck and damper wire.
These problem are usually very easy to fix - hard part is finding out where the problem lies.

As has been noted, this is at the "break" between bass and tenor. That is also where the sostenuto lift is located.

I'd suspect that the sound has something to do with the sostenuto system, or damper levers or perhaps inadequate clearance cut into the key ends or key frame at that point.

I did not notice the place... There the damper upstop rail get always out of its normal height because the sustain pedal push on it. With time there is often way too much play on the top of the damper.. WiIth the sostenuto pedal there may be a little play left for that one but when there is too much the sensation under the key is bad and unfocused as if there where another letoff once the key bottoms.