Kawai KK Upright problem

[Andrew & Rebeca Anderson]

I've been volunteer tuning a Kawai KK Upright.  (My only volunteer 
venue.)  I didn't much like it but after a pitch-raise, some voicing up 
around the tenor break, another tuning several months later; it was 
starting to come around.  What I didn't like was how short the sustain was 
around the midrange of the piano.  It was somewhat better than a tuned 
brick.  I was pondering what voicing methods would bring out sustain.  I 
didn't think lacquer was what was needed.  It adds attack and that was 
already OK.
Later my wife played it to accompany some vocalists and I listened.  I 
consoled myself that it was nicely in tune and that my stretch that had 
seemed a little too aggressive while sitting at the piano sounded great out 
in the hall.  But it still seemed muffled, especially in the low 
treble.  It would soar and sound great as soon as it was played in the high 
treble.  She came back and told me, "There's something wrong with the 
damping."  Couldn't be that, the dampers moved when the pedal was pushed 
and there was sustain, just not enough.  The bass was a little better but 
not as free as it should be.  Free!  It had one of those practice mute felt 
screens that lowered when the middle pedal was activated.  I had worked on 
that a bit to make sure it wasn't interfering but the spring had seemed a 
little weak.  During an intermission while several others were practicing 
with her I determined to do something about it.  I folded back the lid 
figuring I could take loop out of the spring and get that nasty felt 
curtain out of the way.
I went up and opened the lid while she was playing.  She gave me that, 
"There's  something wrong with the piano, do something about it." look.

Being an upright it never occurred to me to stand up and try to look 
between the dampers and the strings while standing an the damper 
pedal.  ;-)  I watched the felt curtain and the hammers weren't catching 
it.  Something caught my attention and I looked and noticed that even while 
the damper pedal was activated, the played keys would push the dampers back 
almost twice as far.  More, there was one that was firmly ensconced on its 
strings even when the damper pedal was down.  They didn't release from the 
strings evenly, some touched more than others.  None of them completely 
cleared the strings.  huh?...BINGO!

My wife is rather patient with me...I pulled out the knee panel while she 
was playing and then started turning that wing nut on the trapwork.  The 
sound opened right up,  It could still use some more voicing but it is a 
different piano now.  Moral of the story, when things don't sound right it 
doesn't hurt to waste a little time looking at the dampers.  Next time I 
have time to volunteer I'll do a little damper regulating too.
I've kicked myself a few  times over that one since last night.  What 
amuses me is that they had this piano for years now and no-one else caught 
it.  The other regular pianists had been complaining about it too, they 
told me afterwards.  I had volunteered on the piano because I hated the way 
it sounded.

Another piano a some more experience,
Andrew
Las Cruces, NM