(2) small vertical key flop

[Bill Maxim]

Jeff wrote:

>    The problem turned out to be the damper-lever felt. The
> whippen-spoons
>had chopped into the felt deeply enough that the edge of the spoon
> was below
>the surface of the felt!
>What was occuring was that the spoons were actually being 'held' by
> the edges
>of the hole that they'd cut into lever-felt! Duh! Everytime the key
> was
>depressed, the spoons were buried completely in the felt and could
> not lift
>away from it when the key was released.
>
Usually when this happens, in my experience, there is a build-up of
some sort on the spoons which is wearing the felt prematurely, and
needs to be scraped off.

On occasion, when I have run into this situation on an old upright,
cleaning off and polishing the spoon, and filling the hole by putting a
dab of glue onto a damper spring punching and working it into place,
has relieved the problem for as long as the old clunker could be
expected to last.

To test for this condition, depress the damper pedal and see if the key
returns better then with the damper pedal released.


Bill Maxim, RPT, Piano Technicians Guild    wmaxim@gnn.com
Serving South Carolina from Columbia and Greer