Sostenuto regulation

J Patrick Draine draine@mediaone.net
Wed, 7 Feb 2001 07:51:51 -0500


>At 05:53 02/07/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>>Keith says,
>><<I fail to see how having
>>the damper stop rail too high would in any fashion mess up the dampers,
>>and/or the operation of the sostenuto system.>>
>>
>>Greetings,
>>    If the underlevers are allowed unlimited upward travel, a strong blow can
>>send them over the top of the engaged sostenuto rod.  This doesn't happpen
>>with the unsprung sos. tabs, but the later models will allow the underlever
>>tab to go above, and when it does, it stays up there!
>>Regards,
>>Ed Foote RPTs
>
>
>The easy test for this problem is to first engage the sostenudo 
>pedal and then, one by one, play each note hard.  Also, if your 
>damper pedal travel is excessive/not limited and the upstop rail is 
>too high, you can (at least) jam the tabs against the knife, or flip 
>them over... and there they stay.
>
>
>Conrad Hoffsommer - mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu
>

Thanks to everyone for their tips & commentary.
I still haven't fixed the root cause of the damper/sostenuto problem: 
the damper lift is far too early, which meant that the dampers were 
already lifting very high, then when the damper stop rail was even 
higher, forte blows would cause the tabs to hang up (as Ed & Conrad 
confirmed).
So now the hard part is 1) regaining the customer's confidence and 
then 2) finding time in my customer's schedule which will allow me to 
trim all the wedges, set the proper damper timing etc. Unfortunately 
it's either "we're away for the next 2 weeks" or they're in a heavy 
rehearsal schedule with their accompanist and there's barely enough 
down time in their schedule for a tuning.
Thanks again folks,
Patrick Draine


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