Hi Larry, Your comments are not very far off because these damper levers do have spoons which the keys operate. The spoons in the area of failure have a bend to the left and I believe that somehow this is binding the key occasionally. I mentioned using the pedal but you can release the key by lifting or pushing the damper by hand. Since the owner does not play, it is not very urgent to get back and fix this trouble but I sure would like to find it. You do not often have a true intermittent trouble in a piano but I would call this one intermittent. Norm Barrett ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry P. Trischetta" <ltpianoman@adelphia.net> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 5:47 PM Subject: Re: A New Trouble Hi Norm, Heres a little thought that might help... If the damper lever is moved away from the spoon when the hammer is in check (whether by hand or with the lift rod) it has no effect on anything else in the action (unless it's hitting a neighboring damper) and could never affect the whippen or anything connected to the whippen unless it actually held the spoon in some manner like a burr in the spoon catching (holding) the lever felt just enough to prevent the hammer to drop... but I think that the force holding the spoon to the lever has to be greater than the downward force of the hammer and whippen. The burr in the spoon has to be holding the felt pretty good to counter the hammer & whippen falling... maybe it's a VERY small nick in the spoon but enough to catch the felt 1 out of 50 times. I'd try polishing the spoon and treating the lever felt and see what happens after 51 times. Larry Trischetta, Pocono NE Chapter pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives .
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