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Hammers hung, parts prepped, and action assembled, the regulation must begin with a serious hammerline touchup! A combination of new capstans turned in at speed, wippens with two heights of heels,...
Christopher Brown |
This week, I will share a little real-time shift in my hammer prep for hammer hanging. I still measure the distance from strike to hammer center at ends of sections...
Christopher Brown |
The same basic bedding strategy will work for both stiff and flexible keyframes. Whatever the starting point, once one glidebolt connects with keybed, bed the rest neighbor-by-neighbor advancing and retreating each to touch...
Christopher Brown |
The flexible keyframe is slightly lighter built and less taut than the stiff keyframe. "Stiff" describes a construction that resists collapse. With keyframe fully loaded, glidebolts can be retracted so that none...
Christopher Brown |
I'd like to briefly look again at where keyframe meets keybed. It's the foundation of our regulating, but because not much of what's at play can actually be seen or directly accessed, we are...
Christopher Brown |
So next, the worn backchecks come out and new backchecks go in. WNG backchecks are very height-sensitive with their checking surface abbreviated for better clearance and closer-to-string catching. To determine their optimum...
Christopher Brown |
The ideal is to have this 1930 Mason & Hamlin A play as if it were new. With this in mind, which parts and materials can be kept? Which are...
Christopher Brown |
In this discussion of regulating away from the piano, I have left out a lynchpin detail: how to get the action home. Grand actions are awkwardly wide, heavy, and at risk. Ideally, you should...
Christopher Brown |
Wippen rest cushion (or alternative rest rail) assists return-from-strike reset of hammer, key, and wippen by limiting downward travel of shank and bouncing it back into position. Maintaining about a shank's diameter of...
Christopher Brown |
This week, I will touch on the importance of regulation sampling and the possibility of further preparation steps based on what you find. Geometry may need tweaking if normal aftertouch requires too...
Christopher Brown |
Whether or not hammers received off-rail prep, on-rail prep comes next. This will include solving overly loose pinning if present (the overly tight having been solved before bedding and sampling). Support shanks with...
Christopher Brown |
Key Steps for Grand Regulating (KS) began as slideshow photos for a class. Here is an index of the Key Step blog postings so far: New Offering in the Offing Concerning Dags and...
Christopher Brown |
Hammer Prep Off-Rail and Pinning: Now, prep hammers (and wippens if needed). New parts might be considered here, a subject for another day. Same with new materials, rebushing, and other...
Christopher Brown |