key click

[Avery Todd]

Ed,

   You don't mention the name of the piano but is it one of those spinets
that have the rubber grommets hooked onto a fork type thing sticking out
of the back end of the key? If so, those can get hard and brittle and
rattle.
   Another possibility might be, if it's a Baldwin, that buckskin/corfam
(whatever it was called) stuff that went bad and caused all kinds of
clicking problems. Just a couple of thoughts.

Avery

>Speaking of noisey keys.
>
>  spinet piano that I worked with recently... The owner complained of a
>click as the key returned.  The problem seemed to be isolated at the back
>of the key as it returned to the back felt.  I put a very thin piece of
>felt under a couple of the worst of the keys, and it definitely eliminated
>the click.  The lower register was the worst part of the piano, but there
>were isolated keys that did click in the middle.
>
>Please no slams...I feel bad enough already that I couldn't figure out why
>the noise.
>
>I placed a line of the thin feld on top of the entire back felt already
>there.  It eliminated all trace of the offending click...BUT of course
>threw the regulation so far off as to be painful.  The hammers were way off
>the hammer rest rail.  I shimmed that slightly, and did a quick regulation
>on the rest.  I didn't want to make too big a change in the event that
>someone on the list would advise me as to what better way to approach the
>problem.
>
>The really scary thing is that I just don't think what I did was the way to
>take care of it.  And another (fairly picky) client has now called to say
>thata her keys are clicking as she releases.  Sounds like the same symptom.
>
>What is going on...any ideas out there????
>
>
>Ed Carwithen
>John Day, OR


___________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
http://www.music.uh.edu/