Todd. Mute rails are attached to the side bracket on the left hand side?in basically?three different manners:?a wing nut, a large Phillips head screw, and a very small screw, (sometime 2 small screws)?? The wing nut is easy, and can be loosened with your fingers, although sometimes you will need a pair of pliers. Loosen the wing nut and the left side comes loose from teh bracket, and the right side bracket comes out of the hole in the side of the piano. The large Phillips screw is easy,too, using a cross point driver, with the same results as the wing nut. But for the ones that attached with the small screws, the rail?is not intended to be removed from the brackets. The bracket comes out of the hole. Just bend?the rail a little, and it will come out. Then?push it down, and unattached the hook?from the rod that comes up from the bottom of the piano. Remove the springs, and it comes out. To put it back, attach the spring first, then put the rod back on the hook, and insert the?peg into the hole.??? Sometimes there is a little knob that is attached to a small hook on the rail. It's a little tricky, but with the use of small screw driver, you can remove the little knob from the hook, and the brackets come out of the sides of the piano. But you should never have to tune the piano with the mute rail in place. As to why there are mute rails, as Paul asks. When I was at UA, I removed all the mute rails, because they were not used, and in my way. But with customers, I pretend that they are used, and always put them back. To me, it's like disconnecting the sustonuto pedal on a grand. Just because no one ever uses it, or even knows it's there, or what it is used for, they should not be taken out.? Wim -----Original Message----- From: Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:09 pm Subject: [pianotech] Muffler rail screws I have been coming to several pianos where the screws are so tight (on new pianos) that I cannot remove the muffler rail to tune, and then am left with the annoyance of tuning around the rail.? Some have the wing nuts, but some do not.? And rather than strip the screw heads, it is best to leave them alone. ? However, is there a particular method for removing those stubborn screws?? Would liquid wrench work, or is there another trick? ? Thank you! TODD PIANO WORKS Matthew Todd, Piano Technician (979) 248-9578 http://www.toddpianoworks.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090320/97f222cf/attachment-0001.html>
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