William and Barbara, I had the feeling that this might be the case. It does sound mellower/softer when shifted. I'd just never seen another piano that doesn't shift a full string distance. Even adjusting the stop a long ways it still didn't shift as far as I expected, and I couldn't understand how it could be so far outta whack when nothing else on the piano was (except for being 25c flat!) And I haven't had much occasion to adjust shift stops. On my client's Young Chang, there is an adjustable stop (like a capstan) directly above the pedal push rod. On other pianos that I've looked down there for some or other reason, I've never noticed that, and there isn't on one my Samick-made Kohler & Campbell. I'll take another gander at it before I start shaving key end widths, though I suppose I might still wind up doing that. Thanks for all the replies! Paul Bruesch Stillwater, MN On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 9:03 PM, William R. Monroe <pianotech at a440piano.net> wrote: > As Barbara mentioned, Paul, it is not always necessary/desirable that > pianos need to shift a full string with the una corda. It is a very common > set-up to have the hammers shift so that all three strings are still being > struck, in a position that is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to a full string > shift. This allows one to alter the tone color while playing with the una > corda fully depressed, rather than simply having a reduction in volume on > full shift (two strings being struck in the grooves, while the third is > missed). > > This being said, if you undertake to adjust the shift distance, it would be > wise to first check the hammer to string spacing to make sure that is dead > on. If the hammer to string spacing is inconsistent, anything you do with > the una corda is going to be inconsistent as well. Of course, now you might > be into a situation that requires shaping hammers, aligning the hammers to > the strings, then adjusting the shift distance properly, THEN dealing with > string leveling and voicing which will have changed............and so on. > ;-] > > I think Owen and Don gave you some good info as well, depending upon your > situation. Your quickest might be examining the key end felts. It wouldn't > be uncommon to have the felts cut sloppily and consequently grabbing the > neighboring underlever in shift position. > > William R. Monroe > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20080524/f0074221/attachment.html
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