Kawai piano needs orthodonture

[Carl Meyer]

Tom, some years ago I installed a Pianocorder in a console (don't remember
the brand).  I regulated the piano etc at the time and some time later the
customer called and said the keys weren't level.  Okay, I checked and found
out that the whippen wasn't heavy enough to hold down the back of the key.
In retrospect, the whippen flange may have been tight, the key bushings may
have been tight etc.  Now that lost motion had developed the key level was
uneven.

I could have reset the capstans, but what I actually did was to add jiffy
weights to the keys near the capstans.  Now the weight of the whippens was
sufficient to maintain the level of the keys.  The customer commented that
the piano now played better.  I sometimes wonder if the wood in the keys dry
out so much that the front of the key is so heavy that the dried out whippen
is no longer able to keep the back of the key down on the back rail cloth.
It's always bothered me that small  vertical pianos have keys that fall down
when the action is removed.  Shouldn't the keys be better balanced so that
it takes little weight at the capstan to keep it down?

Grands, of course, have lead in the keys so that they fall
down, but they don't have lost motion to unlevel the keys.
Weird, Huh?

Carl Meyer  Assoc. PTG
Santa Clara, California
cmpiano@attbi.com


----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 2:03 PM
Subject: Kawai piano needs orthodonture


> Last year, I helped some good friends of mine find a piano.  After a
couple
> of months looking, I found a Kawai console which they purchased last
January
> (2001).  This piano dates back to the late 70s with one owner, a professor
> and musician;  the instrument was in very good condition with little
hammer
> wear.
>     I tuned it for them and did a full regulation of the piano, including
> setting key height and key dip.  Now, just 13 months later, the keys are
not
> level any longer.  And I'm not being picky here, this keyboard looks like
it
> needs orthodonture.  I would expect a leveled keyboard to last for years
> before it needed leveling again.
>     What would cause this?
>     I can guarantee there are no children banging on the keys, as the
parents
> are professional musicians and I am confident that this would never take
> place in their home.    The humidity level in their home is at 21%, which
> seems very low to me, but then, I leveled the keys last January when the
> humidity was probably close to the same.
>     This piano also goes out of tune amazingly fast in spite of the pins
> being tight in the block.   I can see why it would be out of tune from my
> last tuning in August, now that the humidity in the home is so low, but I
> tuned it one week ago and today there were 3 or 4 unisons which had
drifted
> dramatically.  This is not a one time event, either;  I am always
> disappointed when I visit them to find how poorly the piano has held its
> tune.
>     The piano itself seems fine to me.  The work I did on it is the same
work
> I've done on other pianos.   I have mentioned to them that the low level
of
> humidity was not good for the piano and could possibly be causing these
> problems and I got the fish-eye.  I'm afraid they think that there's
either
> something wrong with the piano, or me, and they're leaning towards me on
that
> issue.
>         Could the low humidity be at the bottom of all of this?  The piano
is
> NOT near a heat vent, it's even sitting on an inner wall.  There is a fire
> place across the room about 10 feet away.   They use it frequently.
>     What's going on here?
>
> Any thoughts are appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Tom Sivak