I have learned so much from your videos. They are well-done and the information is presented clearly without extraneous introductions, theme-songs, etc. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge in such a helpful manner. Cheers!
Sweet; excellent video! I had looked into my piano and found that the felt wasn't placed correctly. I concluded that the felt had worn down and I needed to replace it. This was overwhelming. The symptoms were that when I played and held certain notes, the jack did not "let down" or disengage at all, so the note was dampened by the hammer. This design is much better than I thought: I don't have to replace the felt, just reposition it. You can imagine that this is very welcome news. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching! Yes, even when the felt is worn this adjustment can make it so the action will still work without having to replace the felt. At some point it would probably be a good idea to replace the felt regulating punchings. It really isn't as difficult as it seems. In most cases the rail the holds the regulating screws and buttons slides right out of the action which makes replacing the felts fairly easy.
The magnetic strip won't work for the copper bass strings. A strip of 2 mm thick cardboard pasted temporarily on the strings will do also. I turn up the regulation buttons up till the hammerhead is blocked on the strip, then slowly turn it down till it escapes. When the strip is removed you have an exact similar m let off( btw, in Europe we use the French word échappement). We have als flexibel regulation screwdrivers that diminish the danger of breaking the round heads.
In my experience with older pianos, I have found that almost every time I try to turn the let-off adjuster screw in breaks off because they are all rusted in and will not turn freely. the alternative is to add a thin piece of felt on the let- off button to increase, or reduce the thickness to reduce the let-off amount.
Thanks Peter for the suggestion. That is helpful. Another idea that I learned about in a Piano Technicians Guild meeting last week is that if the letoff is off a consistent amount across the whole piano (which it often times is) you can bend the whole rail by putting pressure on the rail which bends the brackets that holds the rail. In most cases the letoff is too far from the strings and then you would just adjust the rail up so the letoff was later.
Hi Howard, thanks so much for your videos. You know, I live in a little town in Mexico, and piano tuners have to drive a good four hours in order to tune/fix my piano. I was finally able to have it tuned just a couple of days ago, which is great but, right before the guy left (almost going-to-bed-time for me) he mentioned they keys double-striking the strings. I had noticed that, for some reason, I could never get to make pianissimo sounds, as there seemed to be some sort of twang at the time. Now, I'm left with a perfectly tunned instrument, but knowing that I have that issue, I just don't seem to be able to get that off my mind. I came to your page, but haven't been able to find a video where you talk about this. I tried removing a key and twisting the bolt at the deep end (＋/ー), only to see that, when tightening it would just bring the hammer close to the strings. Could you please shed some light on this matter? I will still be looking in the meantime. I appreciate your effort to help others. Thanks1
I think your problem might be related to the hammers being too loose. You can fix that by changing the pins although you might have to rebush if the felt whereon the hammer rotates is too worn off. This guy has very good instructional videos on the matter!
Any suggestions if the hammers are striking the dampers? 1950's model Shoninger. Excessive ringing in entire piano. Dampers appear to be completely disengaged. The pedal rods are connected. The hammers & dampers move together.
Hi and thank you for your excellent, well-explained videos! I own a Fazer piano with Renner mechanics and the letoff adjustment screws have these small flat heads on them. I'm having troubles finding the tool for these. What would you suggest? Thanks!
I'm confused. At 3:10 you say adjust letoff to 13/32" to 1/8" from the string. 1/8 is 4/32, so are you saying the letoff can be between 13/32" and 4/32". That's over three times the gap between smallest and largest. Then at 7:55 you say 1/2" (which is 16/32") is way too far away. So 13/32 is ok but 16/32 is too far away? Can you please confirm these figures? BTW, I do appreciate your videos and find them very informative.
What are the thin, spring loaded wires coming down on the right in front of the soft scrub bottle?? Some of mine are broken or bent where the hammer wont return. Any tutorials on this issue? Thanks for your help!
I have one question: What is the problem with having the letoff distance very low, as it is at 6:20? It seems to me that it would give the pianist more control, but is it hard to get all the notes evenly regulated that way? Thank you so much for this video series!
As humidity levels change with the changing of the seasons, the letoff distance can change as well. So if you adjust the letoff too close, then if the humidity level were to go up, it may make it so the letoff decreases even more and makes it so the hammers block against the strings.
The E key in my baby piano rings when I hit it. The damper seems to not apply enough pressure after I hit it. Any suggestions on how to fix it or what it might be?
Hi James, there are a few things to check. It sounds like this is a baby grand piano. You'll want to check to see if the hammer has some movement before the damper starts to lift. You check this by very slowly pressing down the key. You also want to check to see if the damper wire is moving freely in the damper guide rail bushing. These are the first two things to check. Let me know what you find when you check these things.
thank you for this tutorial, I have an old german bechstien vertical piano and above the button screw there is a long wood strip so I can't get access from above to adjust the screw. is there any other tool I can use? the screws are the same as in this video. Thank you
In this case you can use our pointed capstan screwdriver. It will turn the screws by coming from in front of the screw rather than over the screw. Here is a link to this tool: www.howardpianoindustries.com/piano-capstan-screwdriver/
howardpianoind Thank you! I will buy it. I would like to ask one more thing: some hammers don't fall back to the rail after they hit the strings (I released this cacher strip just for checking). is it the pin or the spring in the hammer butt? thank you again...
The hammer pinning is most likely the problem. If you unscrew the hammer flange from the action you can check the tightness of the flange pinning. You'll probably find that the pinning is too tight. The best solution for this would be to repin the flange. Here is a video on how to do this: Piano Tuning & Repair - Fixing loose or tight piano flanges
Is it possible to have let-off adjusted AFTER a piano has been completely regulated? Does adjusting let-off make additional procedures necessary, like re-setting checking and aftertouch? I'm really puzzled by this: Why do so many european piano technicians regulate let off at about 1-2cm from the strings? I understand that a muffler / moderator in an upright needs greater let off than a piano without one, but 1cm compared to 3mm (1/8th of an inch) is a HUGE difference... and as I would expect, the touch is horrible. Trying to play p or pp is a torture.. but every technician I have had in my house does this. What could be the reason? It's a new Yamaha U1 (built 2015).
Yes, in my experience 1/2" is way too much for letoff. Generally you can adjust the aftertouch without changing anything else, but it's hard to say how much of an affect it would have adjusting it that much. What I would recommend is trying it on a couple of keys to asee what kind of results you get. You can always adjust it back. I can imagine that it wouldn't play very well with that much letoff. Did you also check your hammer blow distance?
Many thanks for your reply! I'd have to check that to be sure. My U1 has been regulated twice, and the hammers have been filed & voiced once since I own this upright (I bought it in Jan 2016 and there was no voicing done whatsoever before it left japan, apparently). I feel comfortable with regulating lost motion and maybe letoff ( I do have the proper tools for this), but anything that goes beyond that.. i'd have to admit that i'd probably make things much worse if I touched them, i'm just a layman. I'll do what you said and try setting letoff to 5mm or so on two keys, and see what happens. I reckon this is a new piano, barely broken in, and it's gonna change a lot over the next couple years but it really feels totaly awkward right now. Almost no control over dynamics.
yeah so I adjusted letoff to 5mm on one key. This key immediately had insanely fast repetition and I could actually play pianissimo without it feeling like I'm playing whack-a-mole. Hammer started bubbling though, because I had zero aftertouch. Hammer blow distance is 52mm (too much). So I reverted my adjustment and called a professional to re-regulate my U1 (once again), but at least now I know what is possible...
The hammer assembly which would include the hammer, the shank and the hammer butt is attached to a flange which is screwed to a rail. The flange is just below the hammer butt which you should be able to see clearly in the video. The jack is part of the whippen assembly which is also screwed to a rail through a flange which is at the back of the whippen so you would need to have the action out of the piano to access this.
