Liftrod Woes

Douglasmahard@AOL.COM Douglasmahard@AOL.COM
Fri, 18 Aug 2000 20:23:02 EDT


<< What upsets me is that I can put it back into the action, and on the
 bench it works really nice.  All the dampers lift at the same time.  But
 when I put it in the piano, the treble dampers lift sooner than the
 bass, not as badly as before the repair, but certainly not all at the
 same time.  If it makes any difference, this was one of those 2-piece
 liftrods.  I suspect the hook was broken for many years.
  >>
Hi Clyde,

Sounds like you can try two things.
1. Adjusting for even damper lift by adjusting the bass dampers to lift 
sooner with the pedal or adjusting the treble dampers to lift later or a 
combination of both.  I have good success with the method Bill Spurlock uses: 
If lifting too early, pull the wire back where it enters the lever with a 
hook while nudging damper head forward.  If lifting too late, push against 
the top of the lever (where the spring rests) with a screwdriver while 
pulling head back.  A hook made from coat hanger works fine.  The nudging and 
pulling is done with a finger. 

2. Bending the lift rod hangers. Not knowing if the treble rod picks up the 
bass rod or the opposite I'll tell you the gist of the procedure and you can 
figure it out for your particular action.  To add more throw in the rod thus 
prolonging damper lift by pedal you would bend the hangers back towards you 
(visualizing the action back in the piano.) Or the opposite if you wanted 
quicker timing with the pedal.  These are SLIGHT bends, a little goes along 
way.  This would be the first thing I would do.  This really works nicely and 
can leave you with only minor touching up to do using #1 methods above.

Good luck.

Doug Mahard


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