A New Trouble

[barr8345@bellsouth.net]

I ran into a new one today. A brand new Henry F. Miller grand that probably was not prepped at the store. I did ease all the keys as many bushings were tight and quite a few balance hole tight as well. After all of that, I still had a sticking key. It was C3, (3rd key from the top of the bass), that would stick but only on occasion. It might play 30 to 50 times normally, and then stick down with the hammer in check on the backcheck. I then discovered that by slowly pressing the damper pedal, the hammer would release from the backcheck and then with a little more movement of the damper pedal, everything would drop back to normal. The hammer and the backcheck look okay. I believe that the key end and the damper underlever are somehow sticking but could find nothing out of the way like a burr or something. The key does lift a spoon on the damper underlever and the felt on the key and the spoon look very good. Looking for ideas.

Norm Barrett
Memphis chapter