Upright let-off jig

[Dean May]

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Sounds like a great plan for a newer piano without a lot of wear. What I
have found, though, when working on older pianos what haven't been
regulated forever is that there are dimples worn in the letoff buttons.
On such pianos I will only turn the letoff screws in 180 degree
increments, preferably 360 degree increments unless I know I can be back
for follow up adjustments. If you stop some place in between then the
heel of the jack is rubbing on a high spot and you'll end up with
hammers blocking when you come back the next year. 
 
By limiting adjustments to 180 degree turns it is difficult to set the
hammers to just wink uniformly off a set up as Dave describes. 
 
Dean
Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN  47802
 
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of 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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