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Step 18Finishing
Once the keyboard is fitted it only has to be regulated more precisely and voiced to make it ready to play. The rest of the piano has to be completed, the dampers installed and regulated, and the strings stable and freshly tuned.
The action has to be adjusted closer to the piano than it was on the bench, but it involves the same things. The keys may have to be re-levelled in the piano, and since mine doesn't have keyblocks I'll have to shim the outside keys like Braid White describes, and if the height of the keys changes the lost motion may have to be reset, too. The hammers will have to be spaced perfectly with the strings, and possibly squared up, which is done by heating the shank briefly with a lighter and twisting the hammer so it's straight. Let-off can be adjusted accurately gauged against the strings, but then the backchecks have to be adjusted with the action removed.
When the action is ready the hammers can be voiced to make up for any note to note differences in springiness, hardness or weight so that they don't sound different from their neighbors. Skillful voicing can give a piano maker a lasting reputation, but Wolfenden warned that it can be more disappointing than any other part of the trade. Braid White described that ever since felt was used for hammer coverings voicing has been done using needles to manipulate its compression and tension, but my hammers are made with different layers and will have an outside layer of new leather, so I might not use all the needling techniques Nalder described. It may be easier to harden them without the deterioration they describe from ironing (or else by lacquering), though, by using different thicknesses and tensions in the leather.
I think at least in old factories finishers were the most experienced and skilled workers, and sometimes they signed or stamped their name on top of one of the keys, but in small letters and somewhere not visible when the piano is all assembed. Piano manufacturers aren't usually so restrained though usually the player only has to see the name in a couple predictable places.
The action has to be adjusted closer to the piano than it was on the bench, but it involves the same things. The keys may have to be re-levelled in the piano, and since mine doesn't have keyblocks I'll have to shim the outside keys like Braid White describes, and if the height of the keys changes the lost motion may have to be reset, too. The hammers will have to be spaced perfectly with the strings, and possibly squared up, which is done by heating the shank briefly with a lighter and twisting the hammer so it's straight. Let-off can be adjusted accurately gauged against the strings, but then the backchecks have to be adjusted with the action removed.
When the action is ready the hammers can be voiced to make up for any note to note differences in springiness, hardness or weight so that they don't sound different from their neighbors. Skillful voicing can give a piano maker a lasting reputation, but Wolfenden warned that it can be more disappointing than any other part of the trade. Braid White described that ever since felt was used for hammer coverings voicing has been done using needles to manipulate its compression and tension, but my hammers are made with different layers and will have an outside layer of new leather, so I might not use all the needling techniques Nalder described. It may be easier to harden them without the deterioration they describe from ironing (or else by lacquering), though, by using different thicknesses and tensions in the leather.
I think at least in old factories finishers were the most experienced and skilled workers, and sometimes they signed or stamped their name on top of one of the keys, but in small letters and somewhere not visible when the piano is all assembed. Piano manufacturers aren't usually so restrained though usually the player only has to see the name in a couple predictable places.
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