ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER
No July Meeting. See you in Des Moines!
For our June meeting we had a great zoom session with Bill Shull of the Pomona Valley Chapter. As you know, he has the Period Piano Collection in Redlands plus his store. It’s a must to see if you’re ever in the area.
Bill gave us a quick intro about the historical piano collection and then moved on to the problems of the 19th century Steinway uprights, specifically the tall concert uprights with long stickers. He found that the touch was quite heavy but by moving the flange rail (before the tubular rail was in use) and moving the sticker further out on the key (by moving the rocker capstan) he was able to change the leverage and hence lighten the touch. It sounds complicated but it was a way of modifying the action without changing the parts. Some people could install a whole new action or possibly make a new keyset and key frame but that would be quite costly. Bill is a “walking encyclopedia” of information on any piano subject, and there was a further discussion about other makes of pianos.
We will not meet in July due to the convention. Our August meeting will probably be our annual backyard party at the Vandersmiths’ in Anaheim. The date will be posted next month.