Dear list, I just wanted to share a simpler way to replace the old Steinway brass pitman. I had a customer who had a Steinway from the bad old days of the 70's which had an EXTREMELY heavy pedal action. Turned out they had a brass shortage that year ;-), and used a wooden dowel with leather glued to each end as a subsitute. I described the fix I had read about in the PTJ, and the customer was very reluctant to let me make a big hole in her piano (enlarge the pitman hole). I said I would give it some thought. Next day I was in a building supply store and saw some brass rod in varying diameters. I had been contemplating whether a smaller diameter wooden dowel with pins in its ends would hold up to wear, and seeing the brass, I realized this was the material I needed. I purchased a piece of 5/16" rod, cut it to pitman length, filed and polished the cut end, drilled the ends slightly undersized to receive press fit bridge pins. Then I went to the piano, removed the felt bushing from the pitman hole, and drilled two holes: in the underlever and the damper tray. I located the holes by setting my new pitman in place and working the mechanism to make sure I would have clearance at both ends of the pitman hole (The pitman needs to set close to the back of the hole (towards the tail of the piano) at rest, and will swing to the front during play). I forget if I found it necessary to replace the leather on the underlever and or the tray. Anyway, this was very fast, simple, and eliminated the need to start a forstner bit "cold" around an already existing hole, or to plug the hole with a dowel and then drill (the solution I had originally planned). The customer was absolutely delighted. She could barely push down the pedal before, and now it behaved like a normal piano. There could still be a problem of a squeak between the new pitman pins and the holes I drilled (they should really be bushed, though they often aren't on production pianos that use this sort of system with a wooden dowel), but this hasn't happened to date. I agree the new Steinway system is superior to what I describe, but my fix is cheaper, simpler, and probably reliable enough for most home uses. regards, Fred Sturm, RPT Albuquerque PS. Barrie, I love your "vellum-hinged wall hanger". I guessed what it was, but found that descriptive title most amusing and appropriate, in keeping with our "squirrel-cage" or "bird-cage" to describe upright overlever damper systems.
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