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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jessica,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Has someone been dusting/cleaning--even spraying
something on the damper heads-- and wiping in the wrong
direction? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I had to do a lot of damper work on a piano
that resided in a house with heavy pipe smoke. I suppose
Presbyterians don't use incense. :-)</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>How about ironing some Teflon powder into the
bushings (and cleaning everything else).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hmm. It doesn't seem like the floor would
make a difference on a grand. We lived in an apartment where
the floor dipped and the sewing machine cabinet would roll to the middle of
the room. :-)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Are the compression ridges something new? How
old is the piano?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sorry, I can't remember the Yamaha damper/damper
tray set-up at the moment. Can you shim to get the lift even?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Barbara Richmond, RPT</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>near Peoria, Illinois</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ebonyandivory@on.aibn.com
href="mailto:ebonyandivory@on.aibn.com">Jessica Masse</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, May 22, 2008 3:31
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: Pianos on curved church
floors </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I have been taking care of a C7
Yamaha in an old Presbyterian Church with curved floor. It has a
complete climate control system properly functioning. I have had much
trouble with climate stability in this room but now that the two churches
sharing the piano have made sure the piano’s floor length cover gets replaced
in between uses the changes seem less dramatic.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">However there seemed to be damper
problems in the spring summer months. The damper tray goes from lifting
all at once to being to fast in the middle. Today I went to tighten tray
screws and found them all so-so. So I tightened them all and the
sustenuto rail screws. In doing so with the tray screws I tried to force the
tray level. The dampers at both ends still lift too soon. But also
a few dampers in the middle seem not to seat properly.
</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Remember this piano is on a curved
floor and from Bass end to Treble end I figure it tilts 1-9/16”. I used
silk thread tied to gram weights as a plum bob measured down the rim was
(5-16<SUP>th</SUP> for 12-3/4”) Piano leans to the Bass end. Two
things visually can be seen the trichord felt is sliced a bit off centre, the
other is that the flat felt has drifted to the bass end and is almost missing
the right string. Testing the strings by plucking the bass side was
bleeding through. I’m figuring I am seeing excessive depression and poor
centering of the dampers in the tenor C#-4 and D#-4 both trichord felts on the
back of damper head wouldn’t fall down completely between the strings only on
soft blows but dampen okay on a harder blow they seem to work okay with the
pedal (no hanging up).</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I replaced the trichord felt only
on D#-4 (the most offensive one) and rebent the wire to pull the flat felt
back to centre position (bent at the top two bends closest to the head) so
that the flat felt would cover the right string. I made sure that the
wire was free enough through the guide rail and I leveled the strings.
It dampens better now. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">On the C#-4 I just made sure the
wire was free and the timing was okay. I didn’t even notice when I
started today that this one was a problem. I didn’t get this one working
as well as it should be. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">What I will have to do is replace
all the trichord felt and centered and space the wires for the notes with
combined trichord and flat felt. The remaining 3 notes in the top
of the tenor are flat felt on both front and back of the heads. These
are not working properly either. The right strings are almost
cleared.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The damper wires are nickel plated
and they show a black line (can be easily wiped off) where they contact the
guide bushing. The bushing cloth is very heavy.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There are two things that seem
wrong here. There are very noticeable compression ridges in the sounding
board and I wonder if the belly rail is affected too causing the damper guide
rail to rise and the dampers to go uneven in the middle and also for them not
to rise and fall less far because the strings might move up too. (if
this were true wouldn’t the dampers track to the right string but maybe
because the guide rail moves to the right the angle change forces the damper
to the left. I know that these things are all corrected by winter and I
can’t be by the piano’s side to make sure it keeps getting covered up.
(The easiest thing to do in all these cases is to ream the guide rail hole
more. But I hate too much movement in the dampers all that extra noise
and it won’t fix the pacing problem.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I am wondering has anyone else had
gravitational/friction problems with grands on curved floors? Could this
effect the wear on keys and dampers and action centre pins? Doesn’t it
make sense to level out a piano than run these risks? </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">To be honest they had built a
leveling stage that rolled around (Chrysler engineer is a parishioner).
Then, they removed the piano from the stage. I think the piano
functioned better on the stage. I am recommending that they level out
the piano before I go through all the work on the dampers.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jessica Masse</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoAutoSig><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">RPT Piano Technicians Guild</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>