---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Dallas wanna-be-theres, The call was originally about fixing the music desk on an old Steinway O(not the most secure design in the world, IMHO). The screw holes had stripped, and the husband of this teacher--an engineer, not a woodworker--had oozed glue all over the hinges and screw heads in attempt to get them to stay put. The trouble is, he missed the holes, instead focusing on the heads and the hinges themselves. Needless to say, it was a mess, and it took longer to clean up the old glue than to actually fix(with shims and cold hide glue, it is probably more solid than it was when new!). Her other piano, a rather large Bechstein, probably a 7 footer, was sitting in front of me begging me to play it. The lady said, "oh, please!" so I sat down for a few seconds before the pedals began to annoy me. I thought they were poorly adjusted and noisy. I mentioned this to her, and she said, "you know, while you're here, if you have time, perhaps you can figure out what's wrong with this soft pedal." I had some time(something here regular tuner never seemed to have for this problem). There was a really loud clunk upon release of the pedal no matter how softly I tried to let it go. I pulled off the fallboard and looked at the side of the piano that takes the brunt of the force when the action returns, and there was plenty of cushion felt. No noise from there. I got down on the floor to listen to the trapwork and pedals themselves, and sure enough, it was emanating from the pedal box. I removed the lyre, opened the box and looked at the cushion felt under the back of the pedal. Pretty wimpy, and time hardened. Fortunately, the pedal cushions are only glued towards the front, and the back can be lifted up. I dug through my miscellaneous felt container and found a piece of backrail cloth, cut it to size, lifted the cushion felt, and put in my shim. I screwed the lyre together and tried it a bit before I put it back on the instrument. No noise. I put the lyre back on, and it worked like a champ with no discernible change in the level of the pedal. She was thrilled, because the noise had been driving her buggy for quite some time, and she was afraid to "trouble" her regular tuner to deal with it. Though her payment for my time was less than I would have asked, she said that she would recommend me to many of her students. I figured it was pretty cheap PR. Hope you all had a great 4th, even those of you in places where it has little significance. Dave Stahl ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/2a/ed/57/1e/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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