[pianotech] Kawie GS-50 [shift lever tongue]

[Ron Overs]

Dean and all,

Indeed, the shift lever tongue can get under the keyframe unless the 
dags are dimensioned to prevent excessive upward travel of the 
keyframe.

Early in my rebuilding career we rebuilt a Baldwin SD-10. This piano 
was not originally fitted with an over-travel stop for the soft pedal 
shift lever on the underside of the key bed, relying totally on the 
treble-touch-block stop to limit soft pedal travel. During a 
full-house workshop concert with this piano, the fine pianist who was 
performing had strong calf muscles and also suffered from performance 
anxiety. During the performance she managed to push the soft pedal 
shift with sufficient force so that it moved under the keyframe 
lifting it away from from the key bed. Now this piano was finely 
regulated with the let-off adjusted quite close to the strings, so it 
immediately ceased to function with the elevated middle treble of the 
keyframe being jacked up by the shift tongue. The concert had to stop 
while I removed the action and replaced it to allow the tongue to 
return to the slot.

Since this incident, all of our rebuilt and more recently 
manufactured grands have been fitted with a stop bolt directly above 
the soft pedal lyre-push-rod, between the shift lever and the key-bed.

Ron Overs


>Check the shift lever. Frequently the action will lift off the keybed when
>the piano is tipped up on its side and the shift lever will reposition so
>that when the piano comes down the action frame is sitting on top of the
>shift lever tang. Sometimes all that is required is to pull the shift lever
>down to force the tang back into its slot.
>
>Dean
>
>Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
>
>PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
>
>Terre Haute IN  47802

-- 
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
    Grand Piano Manufacturers
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Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:ron at overspianos.com.au
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