A regular meeting of the Long Island Nassau Chapter, PTG was held on November 10, 2009, at Frank and Camille’s Keyboard Center located at 371 Old Country Road in Carle Place, NY. Six chapter members and three guests attended.

President Michael Slavin called the meeting to order at 6:13 PM.

The minutes of the October 13, 2009, meeting as published in the November 2009, newsletter, were accepted by general consent.

The treasurer’s report was accepted as read.

President Slavin announced that the December dinner party will be held on Tuesday, December 8, at 7:00 PM at Tesoro Ristorante, 
967 Old Country Road, 
Westbury, New York 11590. The telephone number of the restaurant is: (516) 334-0022. Delores Genovese might attend.

The business meeting ended at 6:19 PM.

Joe Bisceglie presented the technical discussion for the evening. The topic for the discussion was the construction of a new Steinway and Sons piano action.

The presentation consisted of a slide show accompanied by Joe’s explanation of what was taking place in the picture. Joe distributed print-outs of Steinway and Sons recommended regulating procedures for what is known in the factory as: First Action Regulating, Second Action Regulating, Tone Regulating, and Recommended Damper Procedure–Sostenuto Adjustment. Additional sheets containing regulation specifications for Steinway grand pianos were also distributed.

The slides illustrated the assembly of the Steinway piano action from the piano keyboard as received from the manufacturer to its finished state. Wood-Brooks and Pratt–Read manufactured Steinway keyboards, the keys of which were made of sugar pine. Circa 1983-1984, Steinway & Sons contracted with Kluge to manufacture the keyboards. Piano keys manufactured by Kluge are made of spruce.

Topics covered included: First leading of the keys; string height specifications; setting the stack height, which included specifications for hammer-flange and wippen-flange centerpins; planing of the keyframe and keybed; tools used to locate the strike point on strings; lining up the hammers with the strike point; installation of backchecks into the keys and related specifications; installation of capstan screws; adjustments made to the action brackets to center the repetitions over the capstans; modifications made to the keyframe to accommodate the shift lever and to better accommodate the feet of the action brackets and related screws; installation of damper lifter felt on the back of the key; glue sizing of screws holes and balance rail holes in keys; sizing of hammer felt to prevent glue from soaking in when the hammers are made; procedures to be followed in bedding the keyframe; spacing the strings to the hammers in the treble section of the piano.

Joe’s commentary included useful information that leads to a better understanding of how and why the piano action is built the way it is.

At the conclusion of his presentation, Joe gave away Steinway keydip blocks, gram weight gauges that resembled cuff links, books, and other odds and ends.

The meeting adjourned at 7:40 PM

Respectfully submitted,
Allan N. Schumacker, RPT