<HTML>Dallas wanna-be-theres, The call was originally about fixing the music desk on an old Steinway O= (not the most secure design in the world, IMHO).  The screw holes had s= tripped, and the husband of this teacher--an engineer, not a woodworker--had= oozed glue all over the hinges and screw heads in attempt to get them to st= ay put.  The trouble is, he missed the holes, instead focusing on the h= eads and the hinges themselves.  Needless to say, it was a mess, and it= took longer to clean up the old glue than to actually fix(with shims and co= ld hide glue, it is probably more solid than it was when new!).   Her other piano, a rather large Bechstein, probably a 7 footer, was sitt= ing in front of me begging me to play it.  The lady said, "oh, please!"= so I sat down for a few seconds before the pedals began to annoy me.  = I thought they were poorly adjusted and noisy.  I mentioned this to her= , and she said, "you know, while you're here, if you have time, perhaps you = can figure out what's wrong with this soft pedal."  I had some time(som= ething here regular tuner never seemed to have for this problem). There was a really loud clunk upon release of the pedal no matter how so= ftly I tried to let it go.  I pulled off the fallboard and looked at th= e side of the piano that takes the brunt of the force when the action return= s, and there was plenty of cushion felt.  No noise from there.  I = got down on the floor to listen to the trapwork and pedals themselves, and s= ure enough, it was emanating from the pedal box.   I removed the lyre, opened the box and looked at the cushion felt under = the back of the pedal.  Pretty wimpy, and time hardened.  Fortunat= ely, the pedal cushions are only glued towards the front, and the back can b= e lifted up.  I dug through my miscellaneous felt container and found a= piece of backrail cloth, cut it to size, lifted the cushion felt, and put i= n my shim.  I screwed the lyre together and tried it a bit before I put= it back on the instrument.  No noise. I put the lyre back on, and it worked like a champ with no discernible c= hange in the level of the pedal.  She was thrilled, because the noise h= ad been driving her buggy for quite some time, and she was afraid to "troubl= e" her regular tuner to deal with it. Though her payment for my time was less than I would have asked, she sai= d that she would recommend me to many of her students.  I figured it wa= s pretty cheap PR. Hope you all had a great 4th, even those of you in places where it has l= ittle significance. Dave Stahl</HTML>