troublesome upright damper pedal

[Barbara Richmond]

Hi Ron,

UST-7.  First, I pulled the action to have a look.  The damper lift rod was
normal, that is, a split rod treble/bass and the treble lifted the bass.
When I saw that I knew I could go ahead with the surgery.  Though the
bracket placement on the levers wasn't the same (and I didn't change try
changing them), everything worked and felt just fine.

I worked for a Kawai dealer from 1984-1990 and had never seen a set up like
this.  I can't remember the exact date for this piano, but it's from before
1984.  All I remember about the pedal levers back then was having to
"travel" them so they wouldn't squeak.  I got pretty good at it (using a
half-card punching to tilt whatever needed to be tilted).

Barbara Richmond

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: troublesome upright damper pedal


>
>> I originally got called in on this job, because the damper pedal wasn't
>> working.  The screws to the pedal lever bracket were just about out of
>> the bottom panel.  Then, I looked around and saw this not so ideal pedal
>> set up.  I posted the 2006 picture last year.  This year I got called to
>> regulate the piano and I included doing something about the troublesome
>> damper pedal.
>
> Kawai UST-8? But didn't you disconnect the bass dampers from the right
> pedal?
>
> The biggest problem I've had with these is that there is so much
> compliance in the system (levers flex, punchings compress), and so little
> lever travel at the pedal, that the dampers won't lift completely on some
> of them. Either going to 1" square tubing for the rods, or sistering a
> slab of maple on top to increase lever beam strength makes them sort of
> work with minimum bloodshed.
>
> Ron N
>