Soft pedal on Kawai console

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Garland O. Goodwin" <garland@main.nc.us>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2004 5:13 PM
Subject: RE: Soft pedal on Kawai console


Dear List, This is my first reply since I got on THE LIST yesterday, so I
may not be doing it right. Anyway, it seems to me that the obvious solution
to the lady's  (not the tech Julia) problem would be to install a muffler
strip like the ones operated by the middle pedal on many of the Yamaha
verticals I service. I think the supply houses offer kits to add this
feature to any vertical piano. They really DO make a difference in volume
without affecting other aspects of playing or regulation. How about it?

Garland O. Goodwin, RPT

    Don't Kawai verticals already have a "practice strip"?  (The ones Schaff
sells are really flimsy).
    The soft pedal on verticals just takes away some of the player's power
by introducing gobs of lost motion.  But it should NOT be adjusted so that
it holds hammer shanks up off the hammer rail!  The player should also PLAY
SOFTER even when using the "soft" pedal, since the pedal itself doesn't do
all that much.  Thus the reason for the felt practice strip on the middle
pedal.  (On some models -- maybe on the one you're servicing, it's a bass
sustain).
    With everything adjusted correctly, there's not much else you can do,
except, as you say, voicing, or adding a felt muting strip with the
"automobile choke" - type flexible cable that engages it.  (I know, nobody
knows what a "choke" or throttle is on a car is anymore).
    --David Nereson, RPT
 --David Nereson, RPT