oddities puzzler #2

[David Ilvedson]

Wippen cloth was eaten away by Republican mice or moths.

David I.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
> Of Ron Nossaman
> Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 12:27 PM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: oddities puzzler #2
>
>
> All sorts of new experiences this week. Normally, I don't like puzzlers
> much, because I trouble shoot with a sort of elimination decision tree,
> rather than a list of possibilities to check, and I need to have all three
> hands on something to understand it. This one, however, I thought was
> unusual enough to show you.
>
> It's an older generic console (didn't even look at the name). As I was
> taking the front off, I plunked on a few keys to get some idea of what I
> was up against, when I noticed the treble half didn't play. "Oh yea", she
> said, "The kids have been having trouble up there." So why don't they tell
> you these things when they schedule the appointment?
>
> The bass half worked fine, but from mid treble up, there was progressively
> more and more lost motion until the hammers wouldn't move at all in the
> last octave and a half. Keys, keybed, or action specific? Running a finger
> across the top of the hammer moldings and again across the backchecks
> indicated that the flanges were intact and the screws were holding them in
> place on the rail. I lifted wippens by hand and got the same
> effect as with
> the keys. Ding! Diagnostics complete, in about half a minute. Having
> decided what I was looking for, I pulled the action and found what
> logically had to be the only possible reason for the symptoms, though this
> is the first time I've seen it... in a vertical.
>
> I'm off to the shop now to fix it. Name "it".
>
> Ron N
>