Upright let-off jig

[Mark Dierauf]

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A fellow tech showed me this trick years ago. He used an old lightweight
12" three-sided ruler between the hammer shanks and the hammer rail to
hold the hammers in place at the point of let-off. There was enough
friction between the ruler and the rail felt to keep the ruler in
position, and the shanks make an audible click (ala Spurlock's jig) when
they wink. This trick also works for setting accurate damper lift timing
on uprights.
 
- Mark Dierauf
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Piannaman@aol.com [mailto:Piannaman@aol.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 11:26 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Upright let-off jig
 
I'm sure someone's thought of this before, so forgive me if my idea is
unoriginal!
 
For those of you who use Bill Spurlock's grand letoff jig, this should
sound familiar.  Every upright has a built in let-off jig:  the hammer
rail.  Today I was playing with a Hallet-Davis (Pearl River version)
that's about 3 years old.  It needed let-off regulation in a bad way, so
I experimented with the hammer rest rail.  On this particular piano, I
could push it far enough forward so the hammers were close to the
strings, even ON the strings.  Some pianos won't allow for that much
movement, but this one did.  
 
I set a some samples for letoff, then pushed the rail forward to the
point where those hammers would wink when I depressed the key.  I
blocked the rail so it stayed there, then adjusted the let-off to make
the hammers wink.  Worked like a charm.  
 
Pianos that won't allow for such free motion of the hammer rail may
require something to clamp onto the rail for the shanks to rest on--the
Spurlock jig comes immediately to mind.
 
Hope this helps someone in some small way!
 
Dave Stahl

Dave Stahl Piano Service
650-224-3560
http://dstahlpiano.net/ <http://www.dstahlpiano.net/> 

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