Associates only puzzler

[Greg Newell]

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Key upstop rail down too low on re-install.



At 08:59 AM 2/13/2003, you wrote:

>Associate members of the list,
>
>What separates us from the RPTs?  (Besides passing the tests.)
>
>Certainly, experience would be one of the top items on the list.  (Yes, the
>list is longer than that...)  Knowing what to look for, having been there
>before.  This past week, I added one thing to my list of things to look for.
>Next time...
>
>No RPT would have the following problem because he would never have made the
>same careless mistake I did.  Therefore, I pose this puzzler to the
>associates of the list, because it would just be too easy for the RPTs to
>solve!
>
>I recently removed the lost motion from an Everett spinet.  It had an
>'acrosonic' type action where the stickers/lifters go above the end of the
>keys into a flange rail where the key capstan strikes them.  I had to remove
>the key cover, of course, and then found that it was still difficult to reach
>the capstans under the flange rail. So, I removed the key upstop rail and
>removed each key by hand, and twisted the capstan.  When I finished I was
>happy with the results.  I left just a bit of lost motion to each key, hoping
>to compensate for increased humidity in the summer, and all the hammers moved
>along with the hammer rest rail when I pulled back on it.  I put the upstop
>rail and key cover back on and left with my check.
>
>Another job (apparently) well done.
>
>One week later I got a call from that client: some of her keys didn't play
>all the time.  Especially if they were played twice, the second time, no
>sound.
>
>Oh-oh...
>
>I opened the top of the piano and I could see that 5 or 6 hammers in octaves
>3 and 4 were no longer resting on the hammer rest rail, but were about 1/2"
>in front of it!  I KNOW I did not leave it in this condition!  Obviously the
>jacks were holding the hammers forward, and that was what was causing these
>notes to play sporadically: the jack was unable to get back under the hammer
>butt.
>
>But how and why did this happen?  In just one week?  Actually, the client
>said this started to happen the very day I worked on the piano.  Humidity was
>28% on both visits, so it wasn't a change in humidity.  The piano had not
>been moved, no water had been poured into the piano, the environment did NOT
>change in any way.  The client did NOT open the piano and fool around with it
>in an effort to fix it himself.
>
>As I took the piano apart again to readjust the capstan height the source of
>the problem became obvious, but since it was something I should have noticed
>in the first place, and because no RPT would ever be so stupid as to find
>himself in this position, (having to return to fix a problem he should have
>been aware of on the first visit...)
>
>I pose this as an "associate only" puzzler.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>Tom S
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

Greg Newell
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net 

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