EMERSON 1895 PIANO WITH No capstans

[Cedar Mill Piano Tuner]

Thanks to Pianotech, Scott Johnson, et al, for helping me get this piano "running" again.
There were, indeed, flat head screws under the rectangular felts.

FYI, with the action removed I backed out every screw 1/4 turn. I didn't have to remove
any keys to do this, since the rears of the keys were easily accessible with the action
out.  When I replaced the action some of the hammers were now sitting up above the
rest rail, while other notes still had too much lost motion.   I chalked the keys accordingly,

removed the action and made more adjustments.   A couple more action R & R's and
that part of the job was done, at least good enough for an Authentic Klutz working on an
1895 PSO.

Interestingly, this piano had a very badly sticking key, and the cause of the problem ( I
think) was that some other klutz had at one time installed roll-your-own punchings, made
from color printed paper, on a few of the center pins.  These pins had a coating of
verdigris so thick that I thought I was going to break the keys getting them out.  A little

polishing with emery cloth and a little McLube took care of this.   Moral: don't use paper
with color ink (or perhaps not any ink) for pin punchings.

As for raising pitch on this piano, I lubed the rusty strings at the V bar with tiny drops of

McLube (thought I'd try it), mopping up the excess with a dry cloth.  Then I tried raising
pitch from -120 cents to -100 cents.  When the third string broke I gave up and retuned it
at -120 cents.  Maybe McLube isn't good enough, but Protek is too expensive (I'm
almost out of it, anyway), and this piano sits in a living room, so I'm sure as Heck not
going to use Liquid Wrench.

Thanks again, guys!

Larry

> Lg> Subject: Emerson 1895 piano with no capstans
>
> Lg> expect to see capstans, there were black rectangles of felt, upon
> Lg> which the whippens
> Lg> rested directly.  Lacking a jack stretcher,  I see no way of adjusting
> Lg> lost motion!
>
>Sometimes I've seen a flat head screw underneath this little black rectangle
>of felt. If the felt is not glued down on either the front or back side, look
>underneath for this adjustment screw. You will need to remove the keys one at
>a time and make trial by error adjustments.