Riddle Anyone?

[Avery Todd]

Hi Ed,

   I've been waiting for someone else to come up with the answer, but I
guess I'll go ahead and make a stab.
   Sounds to me like too tight pinning, maybe in the jacks? I guess also
the same could be in the hammer and wippen flanges?
   Repair: repin and/or protek CLP?
   Am I warm or cold? Waiting with bated breath. :-)

Avery

P.S. On second thought, "church piano". Hmmmm.......

>Greetings all,
>
>     It was one of those great days,  a fellow tech had called for advice on
>the Yamaha action he was trying to regulate, after he  had spent three days
>trying everything to make it work, and no luck.  He brought it over to my
>shop so we could both figure on it.  I found the problem by the time he came
>back in from the car. (Sadly, not through brilliance, but I had spent some
>time earlier on the identical problem, so knew where to look).
>
>1.  Yamaha G-2,  approx 10 yr. old
>2.  heavily filed hammers, but not at all past usable
>3.  Tefloned and bolstered knuckles, ( he had put several strips of yarn
>through each).
>4.  Pinning was fairly loose, but not wobbly
>5.  all felts,  balancier (repetition lever),  adjustment, drop leather, etc.
> were in good shape
>6.  graphited surfaces in good condition
>
>Problem:
>
>      Excessive spring pressure was needed to return the jacks,  and even
>then excessive height on the balancier was required, and several notes would
>skip.
>      When the action train was set to the factory nominal specs, there was a
>profound loss of repetition.  Only when the spring was set quite strong, and
>the mortise was at least .015 above the top of the jack, would the piano
>repeat well enough, but it felt terrible!!
>
>Clues:
>
>1.  He did a beautiful job of filing hammers and bolstering the knuckles,
> aside from that and turning the adjustment screws, he had done nothing else
>in the action.
>2.  The action was all factory original, rails were in the proper place
>3.  The repair required two hours and when finished, there was approx. 200%
>more rep. spring tension, (hammers flew!)
>4.  The spring groove, (grub) was well lubricated
>
>
>
>Riddle:  What was the repair that made all the difference?
>
>Oh yeah,  it is a church piano....
>
>If the list doesn't care for this type of quiz, lemme know.
>
>Ed Foote
>Precision Piano Works
>Nashville, Tn

_____________________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
_____________________________________