important question about a Sohmer 5'9 grand

[rob47]

Hi

I have a problem with a brand new (well about 6 months old now) Sohmer 5'9 grand my family jus bought.  I can't quite explain it to the technicians who keep coming by to try to fix it but it seems to

a.) not hold it's voicing for more than a couple weeks ( it goes back to being uber bright
  - however this problem may be almsot solved, apparently it has "frozen centres" or something like that on the pins in the hammer causing them to seize up. however i have been told there is some forumla which they wil bring next time which corrects this problem for ever. not sure.

b.) have an extremely "deep? touch?"? (but not a heavy action i don't think) This makes it so that every other piano I play on now, from a yamaha c3 to a steinway model d, appear to be MUCH MUCH h quieter and almost impossibl for me to control any kind of dynamics or subtleness.  Even pianos from my school which I used to find had excellent touch and ability to control dynamics etc. now seems just light and dull. The worst thing is on all these other pianos im constantly pushing way to much past where the key is fully depressed.

In the past I have never had trouble adjusting from one piano to the next, but with this piano it is almost impossibl to re adjust from it. Any suggestions or expereicnes with other Sohmer's doing this?

thanks

[gfiore]

Why did you buy it, if you did'nt like it. I t would be very obvious when you tried the piano that the key dip was too deep. Seizing bushings in the hammer shanks is not a good sign on a new instrument. High high is the realtive humidity where the piano is placed? It should be maintained at a steady 42%-46% on a daily basis. That could be the reason for the flange bushings swelling up.

[rob47]

Why did you buy it, if you did'nt like it. I t would be very obvious when you tried the piano that the key dip was too deep. Seizing bushings in the hammer shanks is not a good sign on a new instrument. High high is the realtive humidity where the piano is placed? It should be maintained at a steady 42%-46% on a daily basis. That could be the reason for the flange bushings swelling up.

thanks for the reply.

I really liked the feel of it before and it didnt' appear to do any of these things compared to any other pianos in the store. As for it's placement it's at the front of my house next to a window with heater under it (under the window not the piano).  however the piano techs say this isn't really going to be a problem because the temperature is pretty stable in there and we had the heater around medium. 

however i'm most concerned about what I'm guessing is the "action?" Can this be changed? And have you ever seen this in other sohmer's or had people mention it to you? or is there a chance this is just a fluke in this particular piano? Uhm I have more questions but I'll need to play on some other pianos because for some reason I can't explain it properly...

[gfiore]

Never saw this in any new Sohmer grands. Pianos should not be by any heat source, or window that allows th sun to warm it . This can cause tuning instability. What is the realtive humidity in the room? Your problem sounds like  high realtive humidity causing the hammer shank flange bushings to swell. Idea relative humidity froa piano is between 42%-46%. Any higher can cause the problems you are experiencing.

[daniloperusina]

however i'm most concerned about what I'm guessing is the "action?" Can this be changed?

I won't pretend that I'm a pro piano tech, but I've adjusted some pianos and grands. imo EVERYTHING about the action can be adjusted! Light/heavy; depth of depressed key; hammer travel distance etc..

And the difference even minor adjustments make, can be huge!

Quality differs between different makers, of course, and so do the general "feel". But any piano, new or old, should behave in a normal way. Any technician should be able to spot any such problems easily. There are actually general measurements which each grand piano should follow, more or less.