[pianotech] middle pedal

[Gerald Groot]

I'll bet that probably what happened, is that a friend of hers has a piano
(perhaps newly acquired) with a pedal that only lifts the bass dampers.  She
thought it was sooo cool and so, your customer went home to see what hers
did.  Because it did nothing, her mind goes on auto, assuming it didn't work
right.  

I had one a while back. It was about a 5'8" Schimmel grand.  After I
regulated the action, improving the movement of the soft pedal considerably
which was barely even moving the action over at all, I received a phone call
insisting that the soft pedal never moved the action over before "I worked
on it.  What did you do to make it do this and could you fix it?"  So, I
went over there, explained at least 5 different times to the same person
that it wasn't working right before, that is now, that it is supposed to
move it over to the right.  He insisted on arguing and disagreeing with me
about it.  Finally I got a little bit mad and said, OK, look, you go into
the store where you bought the piano.  I'll bet you $100 cash right now that
every single LEFT pedal that you push on in that store, moves the action
over to the right. So, is it a bet?  Silence...  He agreed to go into the
store but, refused the bet.  After some time passed, I called him because he
wouldn't call me... He said "by golly, you were right!  I just never noticed
that before!"  I said, that's right and you're welcome for fixing it...  "Oh
yeah, thank you!"  Click...  I still tune there but no longer deal with that
person.

Jer



-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 1:59 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: [pianotech] middle pedal


Well, it happened again today, and it still amazes me after all these 
years and all these repeats.

Shucking off my coat and raising the lid on a Young Chang grand, I asked 
the guy the usual "Anything else I need to know about besides tuning?". 
"Oh yea, she said the middle pedal doesn't work". I checked it, and it 
worked fine, except it squeaked. He, meanwhile tried to call her to make 
sure, but had to leave a message. So I narrowed down the cause of the 
squeak, pulled the action, and disassembled and lubed the sostenuto 
bushings. De-squeaked, I put the action back and started tuning. I was 
most of the way through it when she phoned back. Yup, the middle pedal 
doesn't work, because it doesn't lift the bass dampers. I'd already 
explained to the husband that this was probably what it was about, so I 
described to her what a sostenuto is, what it does, and that she has a 
real one in her piano instead of the pretend version bass damper lift. 
Oh, she didn't know that. Finished tuning amid a three way conversation 
between me, the husband, and the HVAC guy who was there for a humidifier 
complaint service call. He was great. Everything he said was 
informative, accurate, and reasonable, and we both had pretty much the 
same story, so maybe they'll have a chance with the humidifier now.

What amazes me, and has many times in similar situations, is that she's 
had the piano for 18 years, and I've serviced it for probably 15. In 
that time, she never noticed the middle pedal not lifting the dampers. 
Not once. It still also amazes me, after all these years, when I finally 
notice something that's been flailing around in front of me in plain 
sight for ever.

nrg

Ron N