Steve: My experience has been that this is more an education problem (for the customer) than a problem with the piano. We are all used to TV's and radios with volume controls that are almost 100% variable from 0 to full blast. Pianos are just not that way. When confronted with this problem, I always show the customer that the hammers are in fact moving toward the strings and that it simply makes it EASIER to play softly by reducing the throw distance. Once in a while, though, I have run into one where the production line settings turned out a piano where the rail would hardly move before running into the stop felt. In such a case, yes, I would remove some of the stop felt. You have to use your judgment on how much to remove. There should still be plenty of hammer travel before let-off, or the pianist will have little control. Bill Maxim, RPT > >I just tuned a spinet Baldwin style 3011c . The customer is concerned >about the fact that the soft pedal really does not make much affect . >Upon checking this like new piano, It appears that the pedal causes the >action to rotate properly from felt stop to felt stop. Yet there is very >little noticeable change in feel or softness of the piano. Is this >typocal of that spinet or is there an adjustment which would be >acceptable and effective (especially) which would give the customer >more control over her piano. The only change I could possibly forsee >would be to slice and eighth of an inch off the forward stop. But when >is too close too close. (Measurements?) Does any one have experience >in this or is it better left well enough alone? > >I'd appreciate your thoughts. > >Steve Haasch from Florida
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