Mark Story rote: <<Micha Dichter (sp) complained that our Symphony Steinway D was bleeding on some strings with half-pedal (good grief). I checked it with him, and sure enough - though lifting properly with a visual check the (factory regulated) dampers did bleed on a few notes. He showed me a great trick to test this. Just half pedal, then strum the strings and the bleeders will show right up. That, of course, is the easy part. ;) >> You're right, that's the easy part. I have on rare occaisions shimmed up the sustain pedal, either at the retainer J-bolt on the sustain trapwork lever or at the underlever frame, at the height that a pianist might engage the sustain pedal for "wet damping". With the action in, you can run up the keyboard to find where the uneveness lies in this wet damping. With the action out, you can get in there and regulate to get rid of early or late damping. Eraly notes get the underlever frame felt ironed; late ones get a shim under the felt (or for a micro-tweek, get two voicing needles set close together, inserted and rotated to upset the matte of fibers). All of this can be stabilized by holding the frame up slightly from its shim point, and droping the individual levers onto it from full height. Yes this is still the easy part. Then you get to the business of three strings on a note which don't extingish simultaneously. Here you're working with the lateral spacing of strings and wedges. The regulation of vertical spacing is reserved for open string work with the hammers. As a result, when you get to the flats it'll be the same micro-tweeking with the pair of needles. Don't worry, I did say *on rare occasions*. Bill Ballard RPT "May you work on interesting pianos." NH Chapter, PTG Ancient Chinese Proverb
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