I've been asked to tune a Kawai RX-2 with a quiet system (the owner's words). I'm not familiar with this system, and tried looking it up on the Internet. There were a number of hits for silent system, which is, I gather, a Yamaha thing. Well...my question is, if I need to pull the action, will it be obvious to me what I need to do--whatever that is? A description of the thing or a place to find a description would be nice. I tried contacting the techs with Kawai, but I think they're out of town this week. Hi Barbara. I highly doubt if a Kawai would have a Yamaha product in it so I'd consider the QuietTime from PianoDisc/MSR. Their website www.pianodisc.com, may have some info for you but I'll bet it's rather vague. So here's what I know about QuietTime (I'm assuming a lot here I know), it's a rail of 3/32 nds half inch angle iron (light gauge angle metal) with a rubber strip acting as a cushion for the hammer shanks. Let off is at a required 3 to 5 mm or you'll feel the keys pass through the moment of let off, or "heavy" playing as the hammer shank hits the stop rail prior to let off. I've enjoyed the challenge of installing these things. It's a rush when the job is done and it works nicely. You'll find a pivot lever under the keybed usually at the bass end. As you move it you'll see the angle iron or stop rail pivot in and out of the way. It's adjustable where the cable attaches to the pivot rod somewhere inside the action cavity up high under the bass strings. Along with the QuietTime was a sound or tone module (sometimes). Don't let it intimidate you. Most people don't use them extensively. If you wish, push the power button, put on the headphones and play some keys just for a basic function check. The keys are sensed by a TFT (Touch Film Technology) strip of thin bimetal strips or Mylar strips that give off a pulse when bent. The size of the pulse is determined by the speed at which the bend occurs. The larger the pulse, the louder the note. This strip is connected to the mother ship via a gray cable located usually at the treble end of the action. On the hammer rail under the treble strings you should find a small circuit board of the size 3/4 of an inch by inch and a quarter, green and has two cables connected to it. The gray one has a blue and chrome connector. UNPLUG IT BY PULLING IT DOWN OR OUT OF THE SOCKET IT'S IN PRIOR TO REMOVING THE ACTION. I provide a cable clamp on the side of the action cavity to temporarily store the cable out of the way of the action sliding in and out. Don't pull or mess with the really thin white flat cable of smaller dimensions than the previous cable unless you have to remove the stack. There's two small tabs at either end of this socket that pull up via your finger nail. That releases the clamp that just barely holds that cable in the socket. Give them each a push while you're in the area to ensure a good connection. The blue and chrome connector is trapezoidal. Make sure you have it lined up properly prior to reconnecting. I've seen people push so hard it changes the orientation. The metal parts changed shape that much. On the advanced side of things, you can adjust the touch or response of the TFT strip. MSR has a informational strip that you lay across the backs of the keys and press certain keys in sequence to program the QT software. Response curves, volume settings between blacks and whites, overall volume up and down, etc. etc. I hope this helps. Lar -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091208/f78d69d8/attachment.htm>
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