I'll bet that probably what happened, is that a friend of hers has a piano (perhaps newly acquired) with a pedal that only lifts the bass dampers. She thought it was sooo cool and so, your customer went home to see what hers did. Because it did nothing, her mind goes on auto, assuming it didn't work right. I had one a while back. It was about a 5'8" Schimmel grand. After I regulated the action, improving the movement of the soft pedal considerably which was barely even moving the action over at all, I received a phone call insisting that the soft pedal never moved the action over before "I worked on it. What did you do to make it do this and could you fix it?" So, I went over there, explained at least 5 different times to the same person that it wasn't working right before, that is now, that it is supposed to move it over to the right. He insisted on arguing and disagreeing with me about it. Finally I got a little bit mad and said, OK, look, you go into the store where you bought the piano. I'll bet you $100 cash right now that every single LEFT pedal that you push on in that store, moves the action over to the right. So, is it a bet? Silence... He agreed to go into the store but, refused the bet. After some time passed, I called him because he wouldn't call me... He said "by golly, you were right! I just never noticed that before!" I said, that's right and you're welcome for fixing it... "Oh yeah, thank you!" Click... I still tune there but no longer deal with that person. Jer -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron Nossaman Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 1:59 PM To: Pianotech Subject: [pianotech] middle pedal Well, it happened again today, and it still amazes me after all these years and all these repeats. Shucking off my coat and raising the lid on a Young Chang grand, I asked the guy the usual "Anything else I need to know about besides tuning?". "Oh yea, she said the middle pedal doesn't work". I checked it, and it worked fine, except it squeaked. He, meanwhile tried to call her to make sure, but had to leave a message. So I narrowed down the cause of the squeak, pulled the action, and disassembled and lubed the sostenuto bushings. De-squeaked, I put the action back and started tuning. I was most of the way through it when she phoned back. Yup, the middle pedal doesn't work, because it doesn't lift the bass dampers. I'd already explained to the husband that this was probably what it was about, so I described to her what a sostenuto is, what it does, and that she has a real one in her piano instead of the pretend version bass damper lift. Oh, she didn't know that. Finished tuning amid a three way conversation between me, the husband, and the HVAC guy who was there for a humidifier complaint service call. He was great. Everything he said was informative, accurate, and reasonable, and we both had pretty much the same story, so maybe they'll have a chance with the humidifier now. What amazes me, and has many times in similar situations, is that she's had the piano for 18 years, and I've serviced it for probably 15. In that time, she never noticed the middle pedal not lifting the dampers. Not once. It still also amazes me, after all these years, when I finally notice something that's been flailing around in front of me in plain sight for ever. nrg Ron N
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