Dear colleagues - In my 11 years as Director of Piano Maintenance at Berklee College of Music in Boston - 1973 - 1984 - I often encountered walking center pins in Yamaha flanges. In many cases I did what Mr. Harvey described. I found that there were minimal side effects, and the procedure restored straight line travel of the hammer. After resetting any walking pins, I would then tighten all butt plate screws from the back side of the action (removing it from the piano, of course). Finally, after replacing the action back in the piano,I would check all centers by depressing the damper pedal and very slowly moving the hammers to the strings with the keys. Then, very slowly letting the keys return to their rest position (so as to support the wippen) I would check to see if any of the hammers were sluggish. If so, then only these butts would get further treatement of the flange - rebushing and repinning - or replacing it (the procedure of choice - cost effective and fast). There were 200 pianos on hand; nearly 130 of them were Yamaha uprights. During my years at Berklee, I "bought" 300 Yamahas as part of the replacement cycle. There were, also, some 2,000 critics in residence at Berklee (students and faculty). A real crucible for becoming a good CAUT. Thank you for reading this post. I hope that I've addressed the issue properly. ---------------------------------------partially quoted posting------------------------------ On Feb 04, 1996 07:19:56, 'Jim_Harvey@yca.ccmail.compuserve.com' wrote: >Under duress, in once instance I gently pressed all the pins back >through the opposite side of the flange, then tightened the butt >plate screws. I did this *knowing* that the pin no longer had a >point on the end. Regardless of any additional damage *I* may >have caused, this was a cost-effective, expedient fix under the >circumstances -- just to make the piano work. The side effects, >among many other things, was the accelerated wear to the (only) >bushing being used, compared to the opposite side's bushing now >being too tight. ----------------------------------end partially quoted posting------------------------- Thomas A. Sheehan Concert Systems, Inc. aquinas@nyc.pipeline.com 1996 New Year's resolution: Retest and rejoin PTG - previously RPT member (89% Club in tuning test) and President of Boston Chapter (1980 = 1982). Best regards to all my frineds in PTG!
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