Chickering Upright Oddities

[John Ross]

Hi Patrick,
Possibly the rod had been changed.
Just cut the rod shorter and add a capstan screw, for adjustment. Make sure the
damper rod arm is not bent or broken.
I know, you will have checked the spoons, but just in case, see it is not them doing
the holding off.
Regards,
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.

ppoulson@cwnet.com wrote:

> Greetings! I am finishing up rebuilding a Chickering BB67 upright and have hit
> a minor snag.  As seems to be the case with most Chickerings, it has its share
> of nonstandard design features. This one had oversize damper springs that I
> had to make by hand. It also has an unusual pedal and lever design; instead
> of the usual levers and rods, with adjustment nuts at the pedals, it has wooden
> levers running diagonally from each pedal to the bottom of the keybed, where
> the levers push up on the lift rods. Each lever has a leaf spring at each end
> to cause it to return.  The problem is I don't see any provision for adjustment,
> and the dampers are being held away from the strings.  I could just trim the
> lifter rods down, but it seems like there should be a better way to achieve
> a proper adjustment. There are no stop screws in the system.  Anybody ever run
> across this problem, or have an idea about adjusting the darn things? Its the
> last thing I have to do on the piano before it goes back to its owner.  Thanks,
> Patrick Poulson, RPT