Alan's Maxim and partial answer to: Puzzler for a rainy Sundayafternoon ...

[Ric Brekne]

Hi Alan

I have to admit I am a bit confused at this point.  What you write below would point me in the direction of  the drop screw being,engaged after the lettoff button and both happening at least a tad too late.  If you have lettoff set to 1 mm for example, and  drop screw comes into play after this moment, then the rep lever will push (via <<aftertouch>>) the hammer into the strings.  But in this case the action is pretty far from being close to a ball park regulation. Increasing key travel by removing punchings will just exhasperate the problem. 

The initial relationship between jack top height /rep lever height doesnt bear on this per se,  as one can still insure that the drop screw engages at the same time as the letoff button.  What  WILL be a problem in the case of the jack top being to high is that it will have difficulty getting back under the knuckle after letoff.... especially in soft play. Putting the jack top high enough and you will indeed completely take the rep lever out of the equation all together, and have an unplayable piano to boot :)

So... why dont you clear all this up for us and tell us what the actual problem was and what  tiny weeny itty bitty yellow polkadotted adjustment saved the day for you ?

Cheers Alan
RicB


Alan writes:
No, no, no ... Now I see where I have confused everyone a little. In that
the jack top definitely got out from under the knuckle, it did let off.
What wasn't happening was any hammer drop. In the vertical, that hammer
changes direction at letoff, so I was thinking (well maybe) "No drop, no
letoff."

I think that the jack must have been high enough that when the lever hit
the drop screw the knuckle just sat on the jack top, or the back edge
thereof, and never fell to the rep lever. Then in the aftertouch, the lever
just swooped up and picked up the knuckle off the jack. But it seems the
jack would have to be awfully high to stay in the ball game after rotating
out and, as I say, it certainly didn't LOOK way out of spec.