<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">People have been mentioning the hammer tail catching on the backcheck, but I haven't seen any mention of the hammer <u>felt</u> been caught by the backcheck. I see one about every 15 years or so. And it's the pianissimo that exposes it.<div><br></div><div>---Tom Gorley<br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>On Jul 16, 2011, at 10:18 AM, Ed Foote wrote:<div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><font color="black" size="2" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, Serif">I have had hanging key leads cause this sort of thing, corroding and swelling, they would rub for a little on the way down.  <div>Otherwise, I would suspect something grabbing the top of the drop leather, or there was a burr or something digging in on the sides of the mortise. <br> <br> <div style="clear:both"><font color="black" face="arial" size="2">Ed Foote RPT<br> <a href="http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/index.html">http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/index.html</a></font></div> <div style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:10pt;color:black"> <div id="AOLMsgPart_1_3af07ded-ff5e-4558-a1e8-95423ef65ea6"> <div><blockquote type="cite"><font color="black" size="2" face="arial"> <div style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> <div id="AOLMsgPart_1_5b4b0573-fc04-4e8a-8e1d-347ced03c0b6"><blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir="ltr"><blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir="ltr"> <div class="WordSection1"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif"> <br> </font> <div class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">As the key is depressed slowly—<i>pianissimo</i>—for the first millimeter or so the key and hammer move smoothly. Then something starts binding, it feels like something in the action is dragging, holding the key and action back. After forcing the key down another three or four millimeters action becomes free and everything operates normally. On a medium to hard blow there is good power and the problem is hardly noticeable but at <i>pianissimo</i> the action will hardly play.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What is the problem and what caused it? </span></div> </div> </blockquote></blockquote></div> </div> </font></blockquote></div> <br> </div>  </div> </div> </font></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>