mystery click puzzler

Tvak@aol.com Tvak@aol.com
Wed, 11 Jan 2006 21:51:52 EST


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List
 
Here's a puzzler for you all; an unsolved puzzler at that.  I've  executed a 
repair, but I have no idea why it works...
 
Kawai grand, about 15 years old.  There's a click on F#2, G#2,  and A#2 when 
the key is depressed.  Not when it's released but at the  moment they're 
depressed quickly.  (It won't happen on a slow  strike.)
 
I take the action out to check for loose screws, debris on the keys, any  
anomaly, but nothing.  In fact, the click is gone.  I did tighten one  screw on 
one of the action rails, so, maybe that was it...
 
Put the action back in, still no click.  Reinstall the cheek blocks,  still 
no click.  
 
When I put the fallboard back on, there's the click again.  Pull the  
fallboard forward to a 45 degree angle, no click.  Back to vertical,  click,
 
OK.  The keys must be hitting the fallboard, but wait a minute.   It happens 
when the key goes down, not up.  The fallboard does not extend  backwards 
inside all the way to the back side of the balance rail, so when the  key goes 
down, there is MORE clearance from the fallboard.  If the click  was on the way 
up, I'd say it was hitting the fallboard when it returned to the  up position, 
but it happens on the way DOWN!
 
Am I just stupid?  Am I missing something here?
 
My solution?  I raised the fallboard so that there was more  clearance from 
the keys and now there's no click. 
 
But how can the keys strike the fallboard on their way down and make a  
noise?  It doesn't make sense.
 
It's not the upstop rail being depressed by the fallboard (That click would  
happen on the way up, too.).  I put felt on the backside of the fallboard  at 
the point where the keys would come into contact with it if that was the  
problem to see if that changed the sound or eliminated it,, but it didn't have  
any impact.
 
I guess I should move on, because I fixed the problem.  But   I just want to 
know: what caused the click?

Any ideas? Did I describe this well enough?  
 
Tom Sivak
Chicago 

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