I regularly service about twenty pianos at a Conservatorium, both uprights and grands. The uprights are mostly Yamaha U1 models about 15 to twenty years old, with a couple of Kawai KS models also. I regulate the lost motion on these instruments so that the capstan holds the wippen so there is no lost motion, however, it is not holding the hammer off the rest. I have just finished the regular maintenance of these this week, and discovered that all but one had increased the height of the capstans to hold the hammers off the hammerest by about 1/4 inch or 6cm. My first reaction was that someone had been at them, turning up the capstan. However, this is not possible as I am the only tech. who attends to these pianos. So, my question is this: Would the sudden change from drought,(about ten years) to very wet conditions, have brought on this amazing change? I find it difficult to believe that this much change could be brought about by humidity. Let's face it, the metal pin holding the capstan is tight into the rear of the key, which would surely not increase the height by this much with humidity! I checked the back touch on the key-frame, and it seems quite normal.The only piano that did not have this happen to it, had an additional heater in that room, which may give us a clue. Your thoughts please. David Lawson Wangaratta Australia -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101024/631fabfd/attachment.htm>
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