weekend puzzler????

[Brian Trout]

I do so enjoy a good puzzler!

Well, you say that the bottom board was undamaged.  My first inclination was
to think that the pelican springs had come loose from the bottom board.
Apparently, that wasn't it, because that could imply that damage had taken
place, and would be pretty obvious to see.

You didn't make mention of whether you had seen this piano before, and
whether they worked before. ??

If the pedal rods were reversed, I would see why they might not operate
correctly, but that wouldn't explain why they would be very slow to return
to their resting positions.

If the kick board was pushed in farther than it was supposed to be, I could
see how that may cause a problem with something rubbing against it, and
subsequently against something else, but it seems that something that
blatant would have been making obnoxious noises, and not a particularly
difficult one to see.

I'm wondering if somewhere along the line, for who knows what reason,
someone installed those pelican springs _backwards_.?  If they weren't
particularly strong, I could see how that would cause very slow return on
the pedals.  The hammer rail would have some weight, but probably not enough
to bring it back to rest.(comes back about halfway?)  There would be a whole
section of damper springs working to bring back the bass sustain pedal to
rest, so they might have at least a fighting chance to bring that pedal back
up.  Since it was the two left pedals involved, it could have been that way
for a very long time, perhaps since new.  Most players only use the right
pedal anyway.  We don't know the history.?  The part about recently being
moved puzzles me a bit, unless perhaps it was damaged in the move, and
repaired by the customer before  Jim the piano guy arrived...???  Or perhaps
it recently being moved means that you hadn't seen the piano before???  Just
having the piano moved could have caused the hammer rail to jump off the rod
pin and be sitting on the end of the pin, but that wouldn't explain slow.
It also wouldn't explain what was wrong with the bass damper pedal.  I'm
reaching!...

There's a guess for you!

Interesting!  Thanks for the challenge!  When do we find out what it was????
:-)

Brian Trout
Quarryville, Pa.
btrout@desupernet.net


-----Original Message-----
From: JIMRPT@AOL.COM <JIMRPT@AOL.COM>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Saturday, June 26, 1999 9:23 AM
Subject: weekend puzzler????


>I tuned a Kimball console yesterday........ from the late 70's-early 80's.
> Every thing worked just fine......except for the 'soft pedal' and the
'bass
>sustain'.
>
>  Both pedals worked, after a fashion, and on the down stroke they seemed
>just fine.............however they were very slow in coming to rest upon
>release....and the hammer rail would stay in about the mid travel position.
>
>What was wrong?  (hint: piano had recently been moved)
>Jim Bryant (FL)
>