Soft Pedal

[Larry Fisher]

Hi all,

>Check to see if 1) there is a block of felt on either end of the 
>hammer rest rail that blocks against an action bracket and limits the 
>rest-rail  travel about half-way. If the felt block is  missing, 
>make two, one for either end of the rail, using either a block of 
>hammer felt or several front rail punchings glued together.
> 	2) Check the slack on the bridle straps. If there is lots of slack, 
>the hammers will fly into the strings when the soft pedal is jammed 
>down. Tighten up the slack, but leave enough there that the keys 
>don't drop when you use the soft pedal normally. 
>	3) Check to see if there is a block of rest felt under the soft 
>pedal. If not, build and install one using the materials used in step 
>1.
>	4) Good Luck!
>
>Regards,
>
>Rob Kiddell, 
>Registered Piano Technician, PTG
>atonal@planet.eon.net
>
These are all very nice suggestions, Rob.  I'd like to add one, that only a
demented piano twister like myself would think of ........

        5) Add a Schimmel fall board shock absorber to the soft pedal
mechanism to absorb sudden pedal movement.  It would take some retrofitting
and constructing, but hey, after installing over 100 disk player units and a
dozen other retrofit products, putting a shock absorber on a pedal is like a
total piece of cake, Mon!!

Lar

                                    Larry Fisher RPT
   specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
      phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
         http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/ (revised 10/96)
           Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water