At 10:11 AM -0800 11/30/03, Joseph Garrett wrote: >Keith, >I agree with your premise. Thank you. Now we're getting somewhere. To your "wiggle room" example: >... An example that is >pertinent to this: If the action mounting bolts were set a little too far >towards the front of the piano, this would make it a necessity for the >action to be slightly tipped towards the back of the piano. This would put >the damper lift rod out of it's axis, so to speak. Which in turn would allow >the rod to swing towards the back of the piano, thus slightly engaging the >damper levers. This is so simple of a mistake in action set-up. Yet, it >happens all the time. ... You've used the expression, 'slightly engaging'; engage as 'to bring together". This is a very crucial point in my position. I have also said that the *weight of the rod*, in and of itself, is not capable of affecting the entire damper lever system at once. I have examined a piano action in my possession that is reasonably adjusted, and clearly it shows this is simply not possible. The only way any damper levers could be affected in some degree is if they are misadjusted (do not lift at the same time when the sustain pedal is depressed), and/or the damper springs are ineffective (mighty weak!) in applying any tension of significance. If these conditions do exist, or are introduced, in some measure in some manufacturers' piano actions when they are first made as you have stated, and the powers-that-be know such problems exist, then I can easily accept *their* primary purpose for installing an auxiliary damper. And since you have agreed with my position, I'd say for all practical purposes, we're both correct in concept. My summation is as follows: It appears when one finds an auxiliary damper lever in a piano, it is then only a matter of how one wants to determine the auxiliary damper's intended purpose. Is it there to account for inherent potential errors that might exist, or is it there to have a split rod act in unison as one. Until, Keith Keith McGavern Registered Piano Technician Oklahoma Chapter 731 Piano Technicians Guild USA
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