Help with unusual wippen, please!

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Benny L. Tucker" <precisionpiano@alltel.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 6:14 PM
Subject: Help with unusual wippen, please!


> Hello folks, I hope someone can help me out with this. Took on another job
> of regulating a grand action that should be in the trash. I have no Idea
of
> the brand of grand this is, as it was re-whatevered ages ago, including
case
> refinish with no name decals, and soundboard refinished/replaced with no
> name decal. Actually I didn't look real hard for the brand as I was trying
> my best to get the couple to toss this piano.
>     Problem: Wippens like I have never seen before. I know I'm young in
this
> profession, but I'll try to describe what I'm talking about. In place of
> knuckles of the usual kind on the shanks, there's just a wooden bump that
> acts as a knuckle.
>     The jacks don't actually push up on this knuckle, because pinned to
the
> rep lever is a buckskin/leather covered wooden flap that rests over the
jack
> window, and this flap gets pushed up by the jack, I guess this may be the
> knuckle. This flap is what pushes up on the shank "wood knuckle".
> I have never seen this arrangement before, so if some of you other folks
out
> there know what I'm talking about, I would appreciate you telling me how
to
> regulate the jacks to this flap/knuckle thingee.
>     Thanks for your time!
>
> Benny L. Tucker
> Yamaha Factory Tuner
> Precision Piano Tuning & Repair
> Thomaston, Ga.


    There's probably no official specification in a table in a book
anywhere.  But no matter what the mechanism, you want the maximum force
delivered by the jack to the shank when the key is first depressed, with no
undue lost motion, and no "cheating", or "skipping out" on a hard blow; and
you want the jack to be able to return under the shank every time when it's
released.
    I've never seen one either, but I imagine the jack would be at a right
angle to the shank at rest, lined up with the center or largest part of the
wooden bump on the shank.
    You didn't mention if the wippen includes a repetition spring or a
regulating button for the rep. lever height in relation to the jack.
    I'm sure if you know the basic principles of regulating a grand action,
i.e., what the mechanical requirements are, then you can figure this thing
out.  Just depress and release A0 or C88 very slowly, watching  what happens
from a side view and try to determine what the action designer had in mind.
    If you still come up blank, maybe Jack Wyatt has something -- he's
familiar with all sorts of oddball actions.
    --David Nereson, RPT