Piano Mystery

[Marcel Carey]

I suspect that the butt leather and underfelt gets more abuse from playing
than the let-off button felt. That would certainly explain this not anymore
mysterious phenomenon. That is why lost motion also increase with use.

Marcel Carey, RPT
Sherbrooke, QC

At 15:13 97-06-24 +0000, you wrote:
>List Members All: All right, I've got one for you.  Why is it that on 
>some uprights the let-off distance increases as the action gets more and 
>more out of regulation?  I have observed this phenomenon many times when 
>first being called to service a piano. Intuitively it would seem that as 
>the let-off puncning wears it gets thinner and allow the jack to trip 
>out with the hammer closer and closer to the strings.  This I have seen 
>(blocking hammers) but I have also seen pianos with let-off distances at 
>1/4 " and more, and the owner swears that the instrument has never been 
>regulated in recent memory.  Is it possible that on all these pianos a 
>previous technician somewhere in the forgotten past has gone through and 
>adjusted let-off wider for some reason?  Or am I a victim of 
>tuning-induced delusions?  Patrick Poulson, RPT
>
>