Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Steinway grand keyboards

I have the responsibility of 'servicing' a 2 year old Steinway 'B' in a college which has had only tuning carried out on it. What is the classic procedure for going through a Steinway piano in this situation, and in which areas should adjustment be usually found necessary. I am long experienced in piano re building and all aspects of general piano maintenance, but I have not had the mysterious 'Steinway training' which involves the logical step-by-step procedure for 'servicing' these pianos. As I stated, I am an experienced technician and have always done things my own way, but I now have a situation which will be inspected eventually by a Steinway technician and i want to prove that i am just as good! Over to you.

When in doubt, request the service manual.

First off... an experienced technician looking at another technician's work seldom really knows the previous condition of the piano, or the budget/time constraints/etc you had to work in. Provided this isn't one of the techs Steinway trains in their ivory tower who's never seen the light of day, he should be on that level.

My experience with colleges has always been "just make the thing work." Unfortunately the piano in a practice room is a workhorse more than a musical instrument. A two year piano usually has more wear than a twenty year old one.

+1 BDB. Also get Yamaha's 37 Steps to Grand Regulation, by LaRoy Edward. This is the logical step by step system, and is as good or better than anything you'll see from Steinway. Almost everything you learn in it, particularly the main concepts, apply to every modern grand action you'll regulate.

On steinways the ends of the front rail float up. Set the glide screws so they are held down by the cheek blocks. You need to set dip with the cheek blocks in place on a S&S.

Do you know Yamahas 37 steps to grand regulation?
1)Bed the key frame
etc

If you don't you might want to purchase some books on the subject of regulation like the Reblitz or some of the material offered by the PTG.

Thanks for those comments. I have a copy of the Yamaha procedure. The Steinway keyboard is clearly the main area of difference. What is the procedure when starting from scratch with the keboard. Are the keyframe adjusters best adjusted with no keys on the frame at all, or with the weight of keys present? Are the key height measurements quoted in the service manual always kept as quoted? Also, in a service of a 2 year old Steinway B presumably you would remove all the keys to lubricate pins and check balance holes and bushings?

In adjusting the key frame glides, I prefer to keep the keys on and adjust by knocking, however, there's nothing wrong with removing a few keys so newspaper can be placed under the glides (with the stack on, of course). I'd suggest getting the manual - it's available on DVD as well. A full concert prep will take 30-40 hours, but the result will be worth it!

Thanks Bob.
Which manual are you referring to? I have the Mathias book on servicing and the Deitz book on regulation for Steinways. Both of them loose a certain amout through translation and have gaps where detailed explanation would be useful.

Be wary if the glide bolts are loose (wobbley). You might want to stop and go no farther. A tech was told by S&S to remove the glide bolt and wrap teflon tape around it. My mentors, I mean the techs face was red when he asked me if I thought that was an acceptable warrenty repair on a $70K piano. I started years ago as a union plumber and teflon tape is not a permanent gap filler for an adjustable thread. I didn't think it was an acceptable repair on any piano.

I agree with Bob. Many techs use the knocking method. It is quite good. I used to remove a few keys near the glide bolts. Now I look for the key fronts to drop when I pressure the bolt with the back of the hand against the pinblock.
A neat trick is to cut a business card so you can stand it on the keybed and hook it under the lip of the keytops. pressing lightly on glide bolts will bulge the card and the smallest drop of the keys will be visible. :b: The Steinway crown. I have worked on Steinways from 1890 to 1980 or so, doing the key level and height and all I can say is I think some of the front rails were thicker in the middle. You can get the mm of crown using the bedding bolts but I go by the amount of pin in the key. Put the cheek blocks in and see. Don't forget the fallboard. The gap there will tell you if the key height is what the factory thought it should be. Lastly check the keyslip. My mentor HATES :b: to see the bottom of the keys.

The glides bokts are regulated by knocking , with side blocks on, and testing having the whole perimeter of the piano not making rattles, in fact it should be sounding like a drum.

Beginning from the extreme right/left toward the middle regulated grossly pushing or looking at the key or hammer movement, then fine tuning of the pressure by tone.

Knocking around, under the keybed,on the stretcher, allows you to hear if there is too much or a lack of pressure at some place(but it require some training and it is easy to hear a back frame rattle as if it comes from the balance rail. Regulating teh pressure of the dag is sometime necessary but rarely on a new instrument).

The front lip may be under presure but you may be able to hear a little rattle if you push very strong up near the blocks with your thumb, if not, too much force on the side, no good.
Very little tension of the balance rail, but very well evened allows for optimum stability in time. Not enough the bolts will rattle on tomorrow morning, you'll have less at some place, hence too much at another. Too much tension and you'll have a lot of problems, heavy touch, bad repetition.

Steiway regulation method is a very usual method, with some tricks for a more precise checking and letoff/drop, and respect to specifications for the centering of hammers, the left pedal, etc.

There is no big secret, the method is adapted to the action, which is very similar to others, only material may be different than Yamaha and require specific method for that reason.
Regulations dimensions are in the Service Manual. Take care of the key height, should be usual (63-64 mm) Wait for a stable season to tweak the bolts.
I plan to install magnets in balance rail of some german instruments hard wood frame that suffered from too much moisture (or innapropirate use of the glide bolts). That balance rail is too sensitive thing, as soon as it grows high, the pressure of the spring in the cavity does not allow it to go down easely. That is why I keep left pedal regulation at best with zero play, hoping it counter act the spring a little (I am naive !)

Thanks guys for all those comments. It's is all very helpful.

Just something I may add about Hamburg Steinway, is that the string level you don't have to touch, the string's hook is not even in the kit of the technician. It have been done to the best more than once at the factory, they advise not to touch it.

And to change for new agrafes when the strings are changed.

after 2 years you may not have a lot to do, a little paper under some balance pins, checking the letoff/drop spacing on the jack, the action screws, and certainly a little evening of the voicing is adviseable.
All in all 1 day work if the instrument have played a lot.

Keith, on Hamburgs the keybed is crowned under the front lip, under the balance rail (little less) and not at the back.

Then the 2mm crown reflects only the keybed's shape then himself reflets the soundboard shape more or less.

Then the hammer center pin follows also the x mm higher in the medium you can found in string's plane.

Measuring the strings in the medium to compute the bore of new hammers may take that in account.
Hammers are bored all the same actually, only rake angle can vary.

Also when regulating the glide bolts on the balance rail of any grand piano: Check your adjustments with the sustain pedal firmly pressed down. The keybed may flex enough and allow knocking of the glide bolts against the keybed.

Greetings
I bed Steinway keyframes by making sure all the glide bolts are off the keybed, then sanding the rails as necessary to make the back and front rail in contact with the key bed. Front rails are usually straight, and the keybed has a slight crown under it. This allows the blocks to slightly flex the keyframe into a very gradual arc so that it stays in contact with the bed. If you have too much pressure on the guide pins, you will flex the middle of the rail up off the keybed. You only need enough pressure to put the ends of the front rail into contact with the bed.
Once that is done, I like to install the keys and regulate the glide bolts by turning them down until I can just hear the lightest knock when tapping, and I mean just the lightest. The weight of a tuning hammer atop the glide will be enough to stop the knock. If you set the bolts with the keys off, you will need more clearance under the glides.
Once this is done, there is a critical step I have not seen mentioned here. Steinway pianos often have very poorly mated stacks to keyframes. You MUST place the action stack on the keyframe, (in the piano), without screws, keys in place, and check to see that all the action cleats are in contact with the feet of the stack. Failure to do this on a Steinway will created a spring-like flex,(due to the tension created by a gap being forced together between the feet and the frame), and the keybedding will be weather dependent. I check the glide's bedding by pressing the damper pedal down firmly and checking for knocks in both the normal and una corda positions.
As far as regulation is concerned, there are no rules that apply equally to all Steinways, they are simply too inconsistant for that. The hammershanks must be no more than 3/8" off the cushions, and the dip must be between .390" and .410". In between those two measurements, everything else has to fit.
It is worth mentioning that the concert regulation of a Steinway has to begin with the pinning, and there will usually be a tremendous amount of traveling and spacing.
Also, of late, the Steinway treble-side damper tray pivot block is poorly fitted, so there is nothing to keep it from twisting from side to side if the screw gets loose. I have seen several that had the block installed with the screw threaded through the block into the belly rail! This doesn't allow the screw to clamp the block tightly. In this case, you have to remove the block and enlarge the hole.
It is not uncommon to find excessive side pressure on the damper wires. this makes them appear to travel smoothly, but will rapidly wear out the guide cloth as the wire moves over. this will also wreck the trichord alignment and cause a lot of noise on release.