Upright Sostenuto

[Paul McCloud]

Michael:
	I have spent many hours trying to make this M&H sostenuto work.
I suggest you graciously bow out and leave it alone.  You will waste
lots of time with it.  Just trying to get it to work at all by adjusting
those stickers will drive you crazy.  You will have to make some kind of
tool to reach into the action to bend them while the action is still in
the piano.  I don't think you can make it work without having the
symptoms you describe.  If there's someone out there with a procedure to
make it work, I'd sure like to know also.  Good luck!
	Paul McCloud
	San Diego


---Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Michael Spalding
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 6:09 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Upright Sostenuto

Listers:

Yesterday I serviced a Mason & Hamlin model 50 upright, ca. 1975.  The
owner is a piano teacher, this is her "private" piano, (she has a second
piano for teaching).  She complained that when the sostenuto pedal is
down,
it is very difficult (i.e. a lot of resistance) to play the notes whose
dampers are not being held up by the sostenuto.  I pulled the action and
looked at the mechanism, and to me it looks like, by design, this thing
will never work.  The "tabs" are 1" pointed wires extending down from
the
ends of the damper levers.   The "blade" is a thin rubber sheet held in
an
aluminum channel which pivots mostly up and a little bit back (towards
the
strings) to engage the tabs.   When the sostenuto blade is raised, any
dampers not already being supported by it will run into the blade before
the wippen reaches let-off, hence the "hard to play" complaint.  I'm
sure
it's also putting a lot of stress oin the action centers.  My
question(s): 
Can the M&H upright sostenuto be regulated to function correctly?  If
so,
how?  Or was it just another bullet-point in the sales brochure and
never
expected to work right?  Other manufactureres of quality pianos make
uprights with sostenutos, for example Kawai.  Does theirs work?  Is
their
design different from the M&H?   Sorry I don't have photos to post.  Got
to
start carrying the camera on tuning calls.

thanks,

Mike


Michael Spalding
spalding48@earthlink.net



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