KIMBALL

[Susan Kline]

Hello, Rogerio

Yes, believe it or not, spinets without bridle straps do exist. They are
terrible, but they were made. In order to return to the hammer rail, the
hammer depends entirely on the hammer spring. If the spring is too weak, or
the center pin is too tight, or if the spring is out of its slot the hammer
will just sit touching the string. 

You are a member of the PTG, so I imagine that you get the Journal. In the
October, 1997 issue I mentioned this problem in my column, "World Class
Junk" (and this piano IS world class junk!) I invented a repair for this
problem, using spring clip bridle straps. You can put on the spring clip
bridle strap (on the catcher shank) and then glue the vinyl tab to the
middle of the strap, after wrapping it around the backcheck wire. You can
even regulate the tightness of the strap by moving the spring clip along the
catcher shank, or by choosing where to glue the tab. 

There is another similar repair which I've seen on an old, old upright. The
tab of the bridle strap was glued to the top of the backcheck. I think the
angles work out better with my method, though.

You could do my repair to the worst notes with the action still in the
piano, though if you wanted to do all the notes it would be easier with the
action out of the piano, and back in your shop.

This should keep the hammers off the strings, but if they are still sluggish
there may be a humidity problem. Possibly a dampp-chaser might help. You can
test this by blowing a hair dryer down at the base of the hammers for a few
minutes and seeing if the notes repeat better. Also, you can get a little
more return by strengthening the hammer spring (pulling it upwards and then
putting it back in the slot.) 

Or, you could install bridle wires and straps as you mentioned. However, be
sure that there is room for the bridle wires in back of the stickers. They
may have designed the piano with very little room for any bridle wires. You
would have to use the short spinet bridle wires, of course, and the spring
clip bridle straps.

Good luck. I hope your customer is a very grateful.

Susan 

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At 08:17 PM 1/2/98 -0200, you wrote:
>Hello List. Today I went to solve a problem in a piano that it's owner said
me that it was in trouble. I went there and could detect that few notes of
the piano was good but a great number of them couldn't to function
correctly. The owner of the piano told me that she lived four years on Texas
and that bought the piano in Dallas. When I was inspecting the problem I was
very surprised because there are no bridle  wires. I never saw a vertical
piano without bridle straps! I inspected the wippens and saw that the holes
to support the bridle wires was empty and clean. I haven't doubt that the
never was a bride wire there. The model of the piano is one that the action
is under the keyboard and the function of the wippens is correct; the
function of the key is correct : if you press a key it pull the sticker, the
sticker moves the wippens and when you release the key every parts come to
the this place but the hammers this is the problem because they go to the
strings and don't come back to the hammer rail. I think that the better
thing to do is to install bridle wires and bridle straps but I would like to
read some technicians about this problem and I want know if is possible the
KIMBALL to have made this piano without bridle straps.Rogerio Cunha - Rio de
janeiro - IC Member of the PTG

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Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"Do you think there's any truth to the rumor that everything is really O.K.?"
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant