This picture illustrates a 22cm section of brass rail showing split; wooden core shown separately.
Here I’ve removed the old rail, presenting the new rail ready for installation.
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Piano Reconditioning, Repair and Restoration
Technical Notes 1.0:
Replacing Steinway’s Tubular Metallic Action
Steinway's ingenious Tubular Metallic Action, a design patented in the late 1800s, has been employed in all of their iconic grand pianos ever since.
It is a clever, compact, light-weight, strong design providing the structure to which the bulk of the piano's moving parts are attached. Of seamless brass tube design, with a hardwood core, it is a system unique to Steinway.
All designs have their drawbacks, however, and Steinway action rails are prone to splitting and warping, as the hardwood core can swell in high humidity, causing the inflexible outer brass tube to crack - typically along whole sections of the 130cm long rail.
The pianist generally will become aware of the declining quality of the piano's action only gradually, and a piano technician with specialised knowledge of the Steinway grand piano action is then needed to diagnose the problem.
Sometimes all three of the rails are split, causing serious structural loss of rigidity and hence vagueness of touch during playing, as the whole action flexes in a way never intended by the instrument's designers.
Other associated problems include loosening of the screws which fasten the components — the action parts — to the rails, and serious deterioration of the whole system's fine adjustment - known as regulation.
During my time at Steinway, I replaced hundreds of action rails, and am pleased to reassure my customers that I check all Steinway grands for this potential fault, suggesting measures to rectify the problem when necessary. The process involves removing the split rail and replacing it with a new rail specifically made and supplied by Steinway & Sons, to the given model and serial number of the piano.
The following series of pictures details the entire operation, performed by me on a Steinway Model O in November 2008.
See also Technical Notes 2.0 and 3.0:
Piano keyboard weighing-up, lead-loading, touch-weight adjustment
The modern upright piano action (video)
Replacement of the Steinway action rail
The seven main steps in split rail removal and replacement:
Inspecting the rail for splits.
Cutting rail, having marked its position, prior to removal.
The split rail is removed section by section.
Ready to receive new rail.
New rail wedged temporarily in place, using action parts as guides, prior to soldering.
Soldering new rail into final position.
Finished product.
Contact Tim Hendy
Telephone 07976 210140 to book an appointment,
or for an informal chat about the maintenance of your piano.
Please leave a message or email hendytim@hotmail.com
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