Young-Chang

[JElving@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-04-09 12:20:21 EDT, Avery Todd wrote:

<< Or because of glazed, hard knuckles
 as was mentioned in one of the PianoDisc posts? Combination of both? If
 glazed, maybe that "fix" would help here. >>

Avery, James, Richard, et al -

With many of these YC/PD/? pianos the material used on the knuckle was to
blame, not that it was glazed over (Just our eyes after working on many of
them. At the time, YC recommended that those knuckles be *voiced* by using a
very small jewelers screwdriver between the leather and underfelt of the
knuckle. This, supposedly did two things - stretched overly tight leather,
and compressed the felt. Unfortunately, it also popped loose many barely
glued knuckle leathers, thereby adding to the job.

The problem was not really how tight the leather was, since the noisy-ness
returned after some time. IMHO the problem was that instead of good quality
leather, they were using some form of petrified kangeroo skin (possibly left
over bunions or corns or foot callouses). The only real cure I found for the
problem was to replace the knuckles and do the necessary regulation
afterwards. Actually, changing the knuckle was the easy part, taking no more
time than *voicing* them since there was very little glue that actually held
them on. I replaced them all with Tokiwa parts supplied by YC for that
purpose, and was happy with the results.

YC has since changed to a very decent knuckle - not buckskin, but at least
not armadillo!

I, personally, have not run into the problem with noisy jack cushions or
spoon cushions. With the jack escaping too early, I have noticed that even
though there is a nice line of notches on the wippen with which to align the
jack, the jack alignment on these instruments is very individual and can't be
done *all the same*. 90% of the time 90% of the jacks may or may not line up
with each other. The other 90% of the time they don't.

Hope this helps(!?)

John Elving, RPT