Answer to puzzler

[Alan Barnard]

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I did notice that power seemed uneven and that the keys bottomed kinda hard and soon and mentioned it. I asked her if she had trouble playing softly (since she was such a fan of the "soft" pedal). She said "yes, and when I was visiting my Mom, I played the piano I grew up with and it seemed so much nicer to the touch." So I mentioned that regulation would be a good idea.

Meanwhile, I was trying to maintain a schedule. But when she called me back with the problem, I showed her that it was time. Did an hour's work and was paid for it. She played it and said it was much better.

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Barbara Richmond 
To: Pianotech List
Sent: 02/07/2006 9:25:52 PM 
Subject: Re: Answer to puzzler


Alan,

Just curious, did you notice how out of regulation the piano was while you were tuning it?  Did you mention to the customer that it needed work when you were done tuning?   

It's so weird seeing old names surfacing as new pianos.

Barbara Richmond
near Peoria, IL




Original message
From: "Alan Barnard" 
To: Pianotech 
Received: 2/7/2006 5:26:22 PM
Subject: Answer to puzzler


Didn't get very many responses to this puzzler, but I wil reveal the answer:

Conover upright, newish.
Customer complained that the soft pedal didn't seem to work.
Found that the prop stick was not in the hole. Put it in the hole and regulated it.
Tuned the piano. Drove away.
5 minutes later, I get a call on my cell: "Two notes don't work when I press the soft pedal."
Turn around, go back. Sure enough two notes (f3 and g3) don't work unless you hit the keys quite hard.
What was wrong?
Hint (things that were NOT wrong): No hammer interference or any problems with rubbing or interfering parts. No foreign objects. No keystick problems. No loose screws. No flange problems. Nothing broken.
Hint: The fix took one tool and about 30 seconds (after about 3 minutes of professional analysis and diagnosis, i.e., chin scratching, confused wonderment, and blank staring).

Answer: Letoff was so early (about 1/2 inch) that, with the rest rail lifted, there just wan't enough oomph in the key stroke to throw the hammer to the strings. I ended up adjusting letoff on most notes and increased aftertouch on the whole piano by replacing the front rail felts with thinner ones. 

"Why not just remove punchings?" you may ask. (Go ahead, ask, you know you're dying to...) The reason was that many notes had no punchings whatsoever under them, and many others had just one or two thin ones!

I don't think it was set up well at the factory and certainly not in the store.

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri
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