Hello everyone. I am a guy who just joined the forum. I became interested in this after seeing various video tutorials regarding piano mechanics; I must say they are very clear and useful.
I opened this discussion because a few weeks ago a technician came to tune my piano, a Yamaha C-113TPE. I told him that I was complaining about sounds not being well-dampened at the level of the penultimate octave, like hammer bounces. I noticed that to correct this, the technician lowered the escapement regulator on the keys in question. Subsequently, I noticed that this adjustment led to having keys that were not very "powerful," which had lost a lot of responsiveness, making it impossible to perform repetitions.
I am asking for advice on how I can act, with which tools to do it, and if it would be possible to do everything myself. Thank you and compliments on the site!
You cannot do it yourself. You must find a good Technician. Probably, after a precise regulation, you need to check that the escapement lever returns easily under the notch without excessive friction. As I mentioned in another post, it is also advisable to check the small spoons (cucchiaini) that move the damper levers. When the hammers bounce, it is evident that the key dip is insufficient. For that model, 10 mm is good, no less. This is when the hammer-to-string distance is about 45mm. Check these measurements and tell your Technician to adjust them if necessary. Unfortunately, the distance is as significant as that of other members to whom I would like to offer my help in person.
Thank you very much for the advice, I had the technician come over; he disassembled the entire action and kept it in his workshop for a few days, where he performed shaving of the hammers and I believe he checked for any potential friction between parts. Upon returning home, he fine-tuned everything by adjusting the key dip, which is about 10 mm, and the escapement. The piano plays much better, but I feel I have difficulty producing a strong sound in the mid-high register. After pointing it out to him, I saw that he modified the setting of some escapements and the regulating lever in that section; I noticed a slight improvement but not yet at its best. He told me that I need to get used to the new setting, I don't know if that is the case, anyway I can feel the difference compared to the other sections. What do you advise me?? Thanks in advance. P.S. I must say that the hammer-to-string distance is 40 mm throughout the mid-high register, while it is 45 mm in the low register.
When shaving the hammers (something to be avoided as much as possible), the "geometry" of the action is also modified, understood as "geometry of distances". By adjusting the hammers to the new distance from the strings, the position of the escapement rail is also changed, which becomes less "propulsive". Here, the distance was even reduced to 40 mm!!!! It's as if you were playing with the "una corda" pedal (the one that moves the hammers forward) depressed. In fact, such a pedal favors "piano" and "pianissimo" because it gives the hammers less travel and therefore less impact force. If the technician has reduced the hammers too much and, by bringing them to at least 45mm from the string, they do not "escape", it is necessary to increase the key dip a little more (about 10.2-10.3 mm). N.B. All hammers must be at the same distance from the strings (about 45mm!!)
