Upright Piano With Bayonet Action.........

The "bird cage" or bayonet action differs from the "open action" due to the damper mechanism which operates by gravity. An outdated and inefficient system. The hammers are below the dampers, which have little space on the strings, especially on the high notes. Smaller hammers and an action roughly identical to other uprights.

THANK YOU PIANOEXPERT !!!

Now the mechanics have totally changed... anyway, you would do all of us a great favor if you would put an image of a bayonet mechanism, even just to understand the differences between this one and the current one...

Hi Giusantsot, could you put an image, even an avatar? That corrupted upload question mark is quite eerie 😛

yes sorry but I couldn't find an image that worked well... now I have this, see if it works for you...

Giusantsot wrote:

sorry but I couldn't find an image that worked... now I have this, see if it works for you...

but I don't see any image... Is it my browser? 😳

No, it's not your browser, Francesco; act as the moderator, help Giuseppe put up a nice photo... 😛

So... maybe I finally solved the problem, I put in a fairly good image... just tell me if it works for you and if it is visible (in both browsers) 🙂.

great!

I don't see anything

Practical question: how do you tune these pianos with bird cage action?

There is no space to put the strip that blocks two out of the three strings to fix the temperament.

And I also find it very difficult to get the dampers in to tune and position them in decent places where they can actually mute the strings.

When one of these pianos comes up, they are a real disaster, aside from the fact that they generally have small legs that don't hold up, but it takes three times as long just to place the dampers!

The only space available is at the level of the hammers, to the right or left of the note to be tuned!

Thank you and hello to everyone

Hello,

To separate the chorus strings in pianos with bayonet action, specific wooden or plastic strips must be used.

These should be inserted between the hammers under the heads, just as when tuning the treble of modern action pianos.

James Lazzeroni

www.pianoaccordatore.it

Yes, of course: I recommend removing the action or moving it away from the strings in order to reach the area under the hammers. Then you can position the felt strip that mutes the side strings of the chorus. Once the central string is tuned, you can remove the strip and tune the side ones using the specific tool itself. What do you think?

Dear Paolo,

In my opinion, if the piano is at 440 and you only have to perform the temperament, the solution with the appropriate strips is preferable to save a good 15/20 minutes of time.

If instead the instrument is flat and must be brought to 440, then the felt strip solution is preferable to add tension gradually and homogeneously across the entire structure.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, however it seems to be a common opinion that with this bayonet mechanism you cannot easily use the felt (or rubber) wedges that are normally used for all other pianos, but you have to use the clip-on damper that can be inserted, or the wooden one.

Objects that, however, do not dampen as well as the others!

.