Did the top of the pinblock area allow for inspection? Dampers not lifting from strings and hammers blocking and all this happening over a short period of time are consistent with pinblock/backpost separation (and pretty major at that). If there is veneer or something covering this area I would suggest measuring the width of the back to plate dimension in numerous places along the top - should be consistent width all along the top. Presumably the pitch would also drop with a moving plate/pinblock. Where was the pitch (and I don't mean low, high, outside, inside or strike or fast or slow!)? >From your description of this occurring over a short period of time, SOMETHING has moved. Did they mention dropping it down the stairs? Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: <Piannaman@aol.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 11:16 PM Subject: Interesting Problems in a Seiler upright > > > Today I went out to service a Seiler model 131(top of the line with > magnetically assisted action) that is around 3 years old. The owner > complained of dampers not working. > > When I arrived at his home, I found that the piano was so far out of > regulation that I felt obliged to look for structural damage in the > instrument. I have never seen a piano so far out of whack. There was no > cracked plate, no warped keybed(it has a metal frame under the keyboard), > nothing out of place, no signs of anything broken. The hammers were between > 1/4 and 1/2 inch off the rail, and most of them blocked against the strings > when played with a moderate to hard blow. I thought of trying to raise the > action bracket bolts(the ones they rest on on the keybed) to raise the entire > action up a small amount, but they were as high as they could go without > bending the nose bolts upward. > > I figured it was a humidity problem that had caused some swelling. That's a > helluva a lot of swelling, though. I ended up having to turn the capstans > down more than one complete turn, then re-regulate the let-off and the back > checks. It came out fine, but I am wondering why this happened. According > to the lady of the house, it went from good to unplayable in about a month. > It was almost as if someone had given a toddler some tools and told him to go > play with the action. > > Anybody ever seen anything like this in a really high quality instrument? > > Dave Stahl >
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