Loss of Volume

[Arlie D. Rauch]

Someone (whose identity I do not know) on the list referred a customer to
me, and I am grateful.  The customer inherited a 1948 vintage Conover Cable
console from her mother.  It was unplayable since the plastic parts were
crumbling.  Otherwise, the piano is in as good a shape as a piano of this
quality can be.  This piano also has aluminum rails (at least metal of some
kind).

I took on the job of replacing the plastic parts:  complete wippen
assemblies, hammer butt flanges, and damper levers with flanges.  I fully
regulated the action throughout.  All went well except that when I was
done, A-61 produced very little volume, and the key felt as though it had
no resistance.

Usually I can solve regulation problems fairly quickly, but this one has me
baffled.  The key dip is normal.  The wippen, hammer, etc. look consistent
with their neighbors (I wondered if a part was abnormal, but I could not
identify such).  I traded wippen assemblies, and the problem remained.

When the jack was regulated to escape 1/8 inch from the strings (as all the
others), it did not escape from under the hammer butt.  If I regulated it
to kick out as far as the others did (which required about 4 complete turns
on the regulating button), then the hammer hardly contacted the string at
all, and the top of the jack (when kicked out) seemed to be lower than its
neighbors.

I worked on this "little" problem for 2 hours and finally left.  If anyone
can give me a new suggestion (probably some little thing I overlooked), I
would appreciate it, and I will go back and fix the suffering A-61.

Arlie D. Rauch
Glendive, MT