Important Request For Additional Videos

I will answer you immediately, I hope, in an exhaustive way for you.

Damper pedal: It raises the dampers, both in the grand and the upright, by means of a bar. The pedal must have a little play, otherwise there is a risk of feeling the stop impact. In the upright, the starting point of the damper release, i.e., the pedal engagement, can be adjusted by tightening or loosening the screw or butterfly nut located at the pedal and the rod that connects the wooden transmission. On the grand piano, you must act on the screw located at the top of the metal rod that pushes the damper mechanism rod.

The "soft" pedal is totally different in the upright and the grand. In the former, it moves the hammer rail which brings the hammers forward, closer to the strings. By doing so, it decreases the travel and that void that the pianist feels before feeling the weight of the hammer, contributing to taking "strength" away from the sound.

In the grand piano, instead (it is called the "una corda" pedal), the left pedal shifts the keyboard and all the action to the right. By doing so, the hammers will play on two strings instead of three or, at the pianist's choice, always on three strings, but on the less "worn" part of the felt.

The sostenuto pedal is also different in the two models.

In the grand piano, it is called the tonal pedal. By playing a chord and pressing the tonal pedal, only the dampers corresponding to those notes can be kept raised, allowing the damper pedal to be renewed on the rest of the keyboard.

In the upright, instead, it is a practice pedal (muffler). That is, it lowers a felt of gradual thickness (thicker in the bass and thinner in the treble) that allows the neighbors to take a nap....(it sounds true!!! Those who don't hear are the pianists....but the neighbors certainly do). What is it for? It serves to ruin the fun for pianists and to sell more pianos...!

Anyway, open the panels and look at your practice pedal. Check the rod's return clip and see if it has "snapped" from too much wear. You can still lower the felt by acting on the pedal life.

Bye

Hi! Thank you so much for the response and the welcome!

it was really very clear and detailed, although I still have a small doubt regarding the sostenuto pedal, namely how it understands which keys have the damper raised and are in resonance and which ones do not, and locks only those in mid-air, so as to allow them to remain in resonance.

Ah, and also why it is never found installed on upright pianos but only on those with a horizontal grand piano geometry!

While I am here, I kindly ask you one other thing, which is more of a curiosity:

two weeks ago I was in a Fazioli showroom, and I had the opportunity to try all those magnificent pianos, including the F308, which was equipped with A FOURTH PEDAL!

Its effect was that of tilting, when pressed, the keyboard towards the pianist, so that the key travel would be shortened and therefore both the intensity and the dynamics would be varied.

So I wanted to ask you: mechanically, based on what I have seen in your videos, does this translate into a variation of the height of the central fulcrum of the first lever (the key lever, I mean), so that by raising it, the keyboard tilts and the travel is reduced?

Thank you so much once again and sorry for the bother!!

Giacomo

The tonal pedal consists of a thin rotating bar which, when operated, "takes" only the raised dampers because, being equipped with small fins, the bar prevents them from descending upon encountering them.

I do not know the fourth Fazioli pedal. I am being sincere. I turn to our friend Pioniere, if he is still in Italy, because he can surely clarify the new mechanism and the validity of the "invention" for us.

@PianoExpert

Dear Paolo, I will answer, but not so much because I know more than You (and how would that even be possible?), but because when an interesting question comes up, I consult Wikipedia or similar sources!

I also recommend moving/copying the answers to the piano section; I think others would benefit from them as well.

@braket

On Wikipedia http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazioli we find:

"The manufacturing company currently builds six models. Their names are formed with the first letter of the company name, followed by F, and then, subsequently, the length in cm of the piano. The models are as follows: from the smallest F156 to the largest F308, with the intermediate models F183, F212, F228 and F278. For the F308, which turns out to be one of the largest grand pianos in the world, a fourth pedal has been patented by Fazioli itself: fourth pedal: it is a pedal that decreases the volume of the sound without modifying its timbre and at the same time reduces the key travel: it can be purchased both with and without the fourth pedal. All models are built with the same wood used by Stradivari for the construction of his famous instruments: spruce from the Val di Fiemme."

Furthermore, on the Fazioli website: http://www.fazioli.com/it/ in the section dedicated to the F308 we find:

"FOURTH PEDAL In addition to the three traditional pedals, the F308 model is equipped with a fourth pedal, patented by Fazioli: a piano pedal that decreases the volume of the sound without modifying its timbre and at the same time reduces the key travel, facilitating glissando, pianissimo, rapid passages, and legato."

The description is taken from the relevant technical sheet:

It is the opinion of several pianists who have played on the F308, including Ciccolini, that a great advantage of the Fazioli solution is the ability to reduce volume without changing timbre, something that occurs with the 'una corda' pedal.

Thanks Gennarino. It should be tried!!

Thank you very much Gennarino!

You were very kind to post these links! I must say that I have been lucky enough to try this fateful pedal and I agree with Ciccolini in stating that it is a great help! My question, however, was of a more purely mechanical nature because, although I knew the effect of this fourth pedal, I wanted clarification on the mechanical implementation (lever system etc...) that makes this keyboard movement possible! And unfortunately Mr. Fazioli is far from disclosing manufacturing details of this kind 😆 so I was asking our common Maieuta Ferrarelli if he already had an idea.

In any case, thank you very much again for the answer, you were truly kind!

See you soon dear all

Giacomo