Key End Felt

[Jon Page]

Avery,
I swapped the felt as you mention on a Bechstein last summer.
The keys needed to be notched to accept the thickness of felt.

Here's how to determine the placement of the height of the felt:
I saw a printout once which stated that the point of key/underlever
contact lies on a line drawn between the bottom of the balance rail
hole and the damper underlever center pin. . .

First I marked where the front of the keyframe lay on the keybed.
Then measured from that mark to the front of the underlever, then 
the length from the underlever front to the center pin. I could judge
the height of the damper center pin pretty well.
So knowing how far from the front of the key frame was the center pin,
the height was easy. A thread from the b/f pin hole(removed key); depress
an adjacent key to the point of damper lift. Mark the side of the key.
That is the lift point, remove the appropriate amount of wood to
allow for the thickness of felt. My job came out great.

Clear ?

Jon Page

At 12:07 PM 10/22/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>List,
>
>   Got a question for you. Yeah, I know. What else is new? :-) I'm
>sending this from the school while it's on my mind but I'm not
>subscribed from here. Andy said it should work, so I'm trying it.
>   I have a Howard No. 550 #217591 (1930 according to Pierce) in
>the shop right now to repin the damper underlever assembly. It had
>some of the tightest flanges I've ever seen. It looked kind of like
>the plating problem Susan has mentioned.
>   Anyway, it's one of those Kawai built pianos (I'm assuming) that
>has no key end felt to lift the dampers but has soft felt glued onto
>the underside of each damper lever assembly.
>   What I'm wondering is if anyone has ever removed that felt and
>installed regular key end felt onto the keys? I'm considering doing
>that since I already have everything apart anyway. If so, are there
>any pitfalls I need to watch out for? It seems like it would be much
>more stable.
>   I have some firm green Renner felt that seems to be about the right
>thickness. I'll probably test one or two, just to make sure but it
>seems to me that the only problem it would cause, even if it _is_ too
>thick, is to have to cut a little off the end of the damper wire.
>   Am I missing anything? Any thoughts, warnings, etc.?
>   Thanks.
>
>Avery
>______________________________________
>mailto:atodd@uh.edu - Work
>
>mailto:avery@ev1.net - Home
>
>Avery Todd, RPT
>Moores School of Music
>University of Houston
>713-743-3226
>Houston, TX 77204-4201
>  
Jon Page,  Harwich Port,  Cape Cod,  Mass.  mailto:jpage@capecod.net
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