Soft pedal

[Paul Dempsey]

>As I was sitting in church this morning, listening to the prelude, the pianist
>comes up to me and asks me to look at the piano after the service, because
>there was something wrong with the soft pedal.
>
>She is a rather vigorous player and when she would depress the soft pedal, the
>hammers would fly up, striking the strings with some force, instead of just
>lessening the hammer strike distance.
>
>The piano is a Baldwin console, not sure of the age, in pretty good repair.
>When I depressed the pedal, the hammers didn't fly up.  I had to push pretty
>hard to get it to do that for me.  I tried tightening and then loosening the
>wingnut down on the pedal assembly, with no discernible effect either way.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>Karen Johnson
>Rochester, MN

Karen,

Check to see if the hammer rail stop felt is missing

Paul E. Dempsey
Piano Tuner/Technician
Marshall University
Huntington, WV
dempsey@ramlink.net