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Interesting ... Aeolian ... I have a 30 year old Aeolian player piano that
I thought never played the repetition notes very well. When I pulled out
the player part and started to check for lost motion, I could never figure
it out (partly because I was just learning about lost motion). When I pulled
out the keys to look at them, they were not weighted. So I took a bunch of
screw-on weights and cut them into thirds, drilled holes in the side of the
keys and glued in a piece of the cut weights. Then, I was able to adjust
for lost motion (before the weights, the jack was always touching the hammer
butt). After I put all the player part back together and played a roll -
the repetition notes responded much better.<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="$mailwrapcol">--
Duaine Hechler
Piano Tuning & Repair
Pump Organ Rebuilding
Member of the Piano Technicians Guild
(314) 838-5587
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dahechler@mlc.net">dahechler@mlc.net</a></pre>
Patrick C Poulson wrote:<br>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Hello All: Here's the rest of the story
on the Knabe (actually Aeolian) console and the customer complaining about
the heavy touch. The owners complained that the key did not respond immediately
to the touch, and also added that keys sometimes did not respond. The first
thing I did was to measure the touchweight - around 52 in the bass, 48 in
the middle, 44 in the top octaves. I demonstrated what lost motion was,
and what problems excessive lost motion might cause. I showed how adjusting
lost motion does not change the touch weight. I then put a thick card front
rail punching under the hammer rest rail, and had them play the piano.
They liked it, and said that the piano played the way they liked it. Interestingly
to me, they said that the keys now responded immediately, unlike before
when the lost motion had been taken up. I saw that they were registering
the intial downward movement of the key before the jack engaged the hammer
as the key responding. In reality although the key was moving, they weren't
getting immediate response from the action itself. The piano had been in
the condition of having excessive lost motion that this is what they expected
to feel when they sat down to play.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"> One reason for the piano having excess
lost motion after being serviced by several apparently experienced techncians
is that this piano has a "compressed" action, which seems to require more
lost motion than most to get reliably consistent repetition. It could be
also that the type of material on the hammer butt is rougher than usual,
and does not allow the jacks to get back under as quickly. In the future
I will be more aware of the possible need for more lost motion than usual
in this type of action. As for the issue of changing the touch through
adjusting lost motion, I frankly have never had anyone before have a negative
reaction to my doing this. Usually, if they notice, the owner is happy
with the increased responsiveness, and elimination of problems like bobbling
hammers. Well, as they say, live and learn. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Patrick Poulson, RPT</font></div>
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