Terry Something just occurred to me about the Kimball. Have you looked under the keys, yet? Here in Hawaii we have carpenter ants. They like to build a nest under keys, and their nesting material is a thick black goo, which is very hard to scrape off. I've had several instances where they keys felt spongy, like what you describe, to find that the keys were stuck to the balance rail and punchings by this black tarry substance. I had a very hard time even dislodging some of the keys. If this is the case, take a chisel with you to scrape of the goo and all the any carcasses that come with it. You cannot vacuum this stuff up. Good luck. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Wed, Dec 5, 2012 5:08 pm Subject: Re: [pianotech] Kimball Spinet with HEAVY Sponge Action I checked damper springs - seem Goldilocks fine - not too stiff and not too weak. Unless I get any other bright ideas, I think I'm gonna recommend to the owner that if they want me to look into it I will try one or two sample keys and chip off the hard rubber nut, inspect the balance holes and install a new rubber nut. We'll see if either/both of those items are causing the problem. And of course, when I have the drop sticker disengaged from the key, then I can much more closely check the rest of the action ite mThanks Barbara, Jon, Phil & Dean. I really wonder if it couldn't be the balance holes. That's the exact feeling it has - something binding in there. It feels exactly like several keys on a little spinet I tuned a few weeks ago - and of course, being that it was just a few keys, I knew something had to have fallen down in there - took quite a bit of looking but finally found the Bic pen right up against the backside of the let-off button rail - really quite well hidden from view. Unfortunately, I've never seen a four-foot-long pen though........ Peek-a-boo! Terry Farrell On Dec 5, 2012, at 7:29 PM, Barbara Richmond wrote: What Jon said. And check the damper springs, too. Barbara Richmond, RPT near Peoria, Illinois From: "Jon Page" <jonpage at comcast.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 6:04:46 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Kimball Spinet with HEAVY Sponge Action Look to see if the balance holes are too high. It can really restrict the pivoting motion. -- Regards, Jon Page -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121205/5d630938/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 79153 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121205/5d630938/attachment-0001.jpeg>
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