puzzler - not

[Ron Nossaman]

I had a "fun" time with a Disklavier earlier this week. Since I don't much 
like posted puzzlers (I prefer being able to look them in the eye 
personally and grab parts as necessary for diagnostic process), I'll just 
describe the glitch.

A year old piano. When I asked about problems other than tuning, she said 
that the "A" right there clicks. She then pressed the A, producing no 
discernable click. "Oh, it seems to have stopped", she said. Great, I 
thought, it will come back just about the time I get home. Since I can't 
track down a problem that isn't there, I went ahead and tuned the piano.

After tuning, I ran a calibration and lo, the A clicked. That figures, I 
thought, it's the player. Or is it?

After chasing things around for a while, I ran a keyboard check with the 
action out and determined it really was the player. The slug clicked in the 
solenoid coil.

After I tried a few ineffectual and random things, including swapping 
solenoid slugs, I decided that any slug I put in there was going to click 
in that particular coil. I have no idea why, but that's what I had. 
Finally, I slightly bent the stem on which the silicone finger is mounted 
so that there would always be some side pressure on the slug when the coil 
was energized, put the action in, ran the test, and the click was gone... 
for now.

This hasn't been a common problem for me with these units, so I haven't 
worked out an optimal fix. Does anyone out there have a more elegant 
approach that I should have taken instead of what I did?