Una-Corda Mystery

Dean May deanmay@pianorebuilders.com
Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:41:59 -0500


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This poor lady shouldn't have to pay for it. PianoDisc requires all of
their certified installers to keep all of the pedals working. Whatever
dealer had the system installed is required to use certified installers
(though some of them don't). The dealer should pay you (he made all the
profit). If he refuses take it to PianoDisc and they can put the heat on
the dealer. 
 
There has only been a couple of times I didn't hook up one or two
pedals. But it was done with the full consent of the customer. They
wanted the system and there was no way to do it without extensive
modifications and cost. 
 
Dean
Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN  47802
 
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Farrell
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 5:01 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Una-Corda Mystery
 
Oh man, you are about as close as you can get without being exactly
correct. I think you are so warm here that if you were at the piano you
would have it nailed within seconds. Dave, I think you need to get
credit for solving the problem!
 
I thought of your suggestion and checked it out. It appeared that the
shift lever poked up from the top of the keybed an appropriate height so
that it should contact the keybed just fine. So it wasn't that it was
too low.
 
So the next thing I tried was to pull the keyframe out toward the
pianist an inch or two. When you had the keyframe out to the front edge
of the keybed, everything worked just fine: push pedal down and keyframe
slides over to the right in the normal manner.
 
Obviously, having the keyframe hanging off the front edge of the keybed
is not too great - strikepoints and all that. So, the real trouble then
was to figure out how to move the plate forward that inch or
two.......... okay, just kidding.
 
I noticed that the hole that the una-corda lever goes through in the
keybed was not round like most - it was oval and a couple inches long. I
crawled under the piano again to see what was going on. And there I saw
it. Of course, the una-corda lever is very close to the metal case for
the player system under the keybed. I saw two abandoned screw holes and
inch away from the screws that were holding the brackets for the
una-corda lever in place.
 
Apparently the installer of the Pianomation player system moved the
una-corda pedal an inch forward to clear the player system box. In that
position, the lever does not engage the keyframe. And either the dude
(or dudette) just forgot to try the pedal to see if it worked or took a
shortcut and hoped the player wouldn't use the pedal.
 
So now she wants it fixed. My thought is to rout out a small area of
partial thickness (maybe a quarter inch or so) on bottom of the middle
board of the keyframe (the one that has the center rail mounted on it -
the rear rail is already routed out for the place where the una-corda
pedal used to engage the keyframe. Then install a hunk of hard maple
that would run from the middle board to the rear board on the keyframe.
Keep the maple hunk maybe a half-inch thick or so - keep it flush with
the bottom of the other two keyframe boards (not too high, not too low).
Position it correctly so that the una-corda lever will engage it, put a
strip of leather on the correct edge, charge the owner a handsome but
fair fee (couple hundred bucks), and then smile when she praises the
wonderful job I did (and then smile again when I cash her check).
 
Or is there a better fix for this?
 
Terry Farrell
 
Off for my Saturday morning 60-mile hurricane bike ride! That long
eastern leg should be fun with 30 mph winds out of the east predicted!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Piannaman@aol.com 
 
A wild guess, based on a previous frustrating experience.
 
The shift lever is not contacting with the keyframe at alll because the
blocks that hold it in place on the bottom of the piano sit too far
above (below, really) the surface to which they are attached, which puts
the keyframe out of reach.  Installers of disc systems sometimes do
funny things to get pedals out of the way of various contraptions down
there.
 
Dave S.
 
In a message dated 8/26/05 6:07:24 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:
 
Okay, here is my first (and likely lame) contribution to the daily
mystery question.
 
About 1980 Kawai KG-2S - about 5' 10" - very good to excellent
condition. Lady bought it used one year ago (she paid $3,500 for it -
perfect satin cherry case - she got a great deal!). During that first
year she had a QRS Pianomation player system installed on the piano. We
had set up a service appointment for cleaning the interior, tuning and
looking at a "loose" pedal.
 
The left (una-corda) pedal was just hanging down. I crawled under piano
to check levers, etc. Everything with the una-corda under the keybed
appeared to be functioning just fine. Adjustment appears good (in that,
when the pedal travels down, the lever moves sideways in the keybed).
However, when you depress the left pedal the action frame did not slide
over to the right. The keyframe was resting on the left felted keyframe
stop. The action slid in and out easily. It was as if the una-corda
lever system was not hooked up to the action frame.
 
What was the cause of the non-functioning una-corda pedal?
 
(This is probably too easy - however, it did take me a good 10 or 15
minutes to fully figure it out.)
 
Terry Farrell
 

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