Upright soft pedal

[David Nereson]

Wayne Walker wrote:

>  
> Upright soft pedal
> I had a customer complained that the left (soft) pedal did not work. I 
> tried to explain the function of the pedal. When I told them they 
> would not hear any difference in volume they thought it was odd the 
> piano companies would put on a pedal that didn't do anything. You show 
> the customer the hammers are moving closer to the string to proved 
> that the pedal is doing something but sometime this is not enough. I'm 
> interested to hear what the members of the list tell their customers.
>  
> Wayne Walker

    I show them how it puts the hammers closer to the strings, thus 
introducing lots of lost motion.  I tell them that this doesn't really 
make it softer, but it takes away a lot of their power, making it 
"easier" to play soft.  Then I might explain what a "real" soft pedal on 
a grand piano does, and that it's impractical to have the same system in 
a vertical piano.  --David Nereson, RPT