Weinbach upright

[Z! Reinhardt]

Weinbach is a member of the Petrof family.  You might want to call Geneva
International (the distributor) in Wheeling IL and describe the spring to
them.  Their phone numbers are (800) 533 2388 and (847) 520 9970.  Sorry, I
don't remember the official name of that part, but I have had to replace a
couple of them about 5 years ago.

If this is the 3rd time the spring has broken, be sure to check the
alignment of the whole trapwork assembly from the brackets screwed into the
piano's floor on up.  About 5 out of 10 were so misaligned that the pedals
barely worked.  The sideways motion of some of the components (that should
have been moving straight up and down) made me think there was considerable
stress that shouldn't be there.  It wouldn't surprise me if that is why the
spring you mentioned broke so many times.

I have to confess, my rebuilding-surgery skills are perhaps minimal at best
and the corrective surgery I did was based on blunt see-where-it-wants-to-go
technology.  In other words, I would detach the pivoting blocks (for the
horizontal arm that ran between the pedal and the vertical dowel) and the
spring under the arm, and just play with the pieces to see where they worked
most comfortably without interfering with anything stationary (plate struts,
the assembly to the soft pedal, etc.).  Then I would fasten everything down
in this "comfort zone," check my work, and wait for the complaints to come
in.  So far so good ... and I have yet to be called back because something
broke again.

Good luck.

Z! Reinhardt  RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2001 7:51 AM
Subject: Weinbach upright


Friends,

Yesterday I went to fix the sustain pedal action and tune a 49" Weinbach
vertical piano model 124 serial 259872, made about 1995.

I had never heard of Weinbach.  In any case, the support for the sustain
dowel was different from the two methods I am familiar with.  The bottom
of the dowel had a pin in it, pretty standard.  But to hold the top in
position under the liftrod tongue, a small piece made of spring steel
and a little less than 4" long was attached to the keybed at one end and
the dowel at the other.  This piece had broken at a screw hole in the
keybed end.

The fix is easy.  Get a new spring and screw it in.  It's finding the
spring that may be time consuming and therefore expensive.  Three
questions:  What is the official name of this part?  What is the most
efficient way to obtain this part?  Thirdly, the client says this is the
third time this part has broken, and the piano is only six years old.
Has anyone else run into this problem, and has any kind of alteration
been successfully attempted?

Thanks,
Clyde Hollinger