<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> Julia, The general spec on an upright is to decrease the hammer blow by half. Normally this doesn't make a huge difference in the volume - it's subtle. If you tighten the wing nut on the pedal prop, that will push up on the hammer rest rail as you've discovered. This introduces lost motion which, if you readjust, will change certain other regulation adjustments (e.g., dampers will pick up sooner, checking will be affected, bridal wires, etc.), all because the pianist wants the piano to play quieter. This is where I step back and try to find out from the pianist if she is having difficulty playing softly, or IOW getting the dynamic range she wants (which I might interpret as a technique problem that she is assuming is a piano problem), or whether the hammers are too hard which don't allow for soft playing (which is a voicing problem). We often have to read in between the lines with these customer requests. :-) Tom Cole <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Alpha88x@aol.com">Alpha88x@aol.com</a> wrote: <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid8e.1086a87b.2e356e64@aol.com">Greetings,               Why wouldn't a soft pedal on a brand new Kawaii studio upright not make the piano play any softer when depressed?  I checked the distance of the hammers and the pedal, caused the hammers, sure enough, to get closer to the strings, but the tone of playing did not get softer as it should; I mean alomost NO tonal difference.                So...I adjusted the soft pedal screw, down at the pedal until my ear was satified as to the softness. Adjusting this made the hammers distance about 1/2" closer to the strings than it was set at. Then, when I looked at the hammer rest rail, it was up off it's resting position on the action bracket. In other words, there was about 1/4" space between the hammer rest rail's bottom and the felt on the action brackets. When I measured the resting position distance of the hammers to the strings it was 38mm!!  I know this is too close, but now the pedal causes the hammers to play softer....                The girl needed to practice for a college entrance or something, so I lightly glued small pieces of felt in the space in between the rail and the action brackets, as a temporary measure,  as to allow the pedal to do what it is suppose to do, so she could practice. Howevwer, I told them I would investigate the specs and visit as a follow up. What could the true problem be here? My guess that it has to do with voicing. (38mm and up off the action bracket, doesn't seem right and scares me.) Thanks for expertise in advance.             (By the way, this was a call from the piano dealer, for their first free tuning and to look art this pedal's problem under warranty.) rookie, Julia Gottchall, Reading, PA </blockquote> </body> </html>