Hello Michael (and List),

   Regarding your recent inquiry regarding reproducing mechanisms in
concert grand pianos, I can offer one example, a Welte Licensee action
in a 9' Steiff piano.  I restored this piano (along with several
partners who were responsible for various aspects of the restoration)
about 12 years ago.  Although my notes about this piano are somewhat
sketchy, I can offer some approximate details and research specific
information if there is further interest.  The piano is the property of
a Baltimore retirement home, having been donated to them in the mid
30's according to an attached brass plaque.  The piano itself, as I
recall, is from the mid 20's, and seems to have been  Steiff's stock
design of the time.  That is to say, the structural design of the piano
has the splayed timbering normally associated with non-reproducing
piano case styles.  In this instance, approximately two feet of the
main longitudinal beam had been none-too-subtlely removed to allow space
to mount the box pump.

   Upon tear-down and removal of the plate, we discovered that one of
the long cross struts on the top of the plate had a sizable crack in
its root where it joined the plane of the rest of the plate.  The
plate, sitting in the shell with no tension applied to the strings,
could be "rocked" about 3/4".  Apparently, removal of the beam had
allowed the string tension on the plate to slightly warp the entire
case.  What initially looked like a serious problem was solved by
adding some structural reinforcement in the "toe" of the case, and by
drilling through the back of the plate into the thickness of the strut,
tapping, and installing a case-hardened cap screw.  This was to keep
the strut from moving laterally when tension was reapplied to the
plate, as the tension itself acts in a direction to keep the crack
closed.  The repair is invisible from the top of the piano and

will only be apparent to the technician who next removes the plate.

-John Grant