sustain pedal not working properly on upright piano

[mercury2]

the middle 2 octaves dont sustain properly.....

 

i have opened the top of the piano to see if there's anything wrong

 

the dampers (that come away from the strings when the sustain pedal is pressed) hardly move compared to all the others

 

is there any point trying to take the front/back panels off the piano to try fix this or is it likely to be quite complex ?

 

I would just give it a go but there's a lot of moving furniture etc to get the piano out

[piano39]

Try taking out the front lower panel off the piano. This should expose all of the linkage to the sustain pedal. When you press on the pedal, it pushes a dowel rod up, which then moves the action. You could manually move the rod and examine the action. It's possible that a shim under this dowel wore, and the movement of the rod is limited. This would be a simple fix to replace the shim.

 

I got to tell you that I really don't know what I'm talking about on acoustic piano repair. I only know how to fix my 90 year old upright. Your mileage may vary.

[mercury2]

hi, not sure how old it is but prob not far off 90!

 

I took the panel off, the rod is still connected properly, even grabbing the linkage bit near the strings and pulling on it the middle dampers dont come away from the strings

are they actually meant to come away from the strings like the majority of the dampers ?

 

 

the dampers for the middle octaves must still be connected as it sustains a little but nowhere near as much as the rest of the piano, tbh I'm not 100% sure if they ever moved like the others...

 

looks like a major job to investigate further, the dampers must be connected in sections or maybe individually to the sustain, cant see anything because all the workings are behind the hammers/keys/linkages

[pogo97]

This is probably a trivial fix for a technician. Maybe it's time to get your piano tuned.

[jpscoey]

This is probably a trivial fix for a technician. Maybe it's time to get your piano tuned.

 

THIS ^^^

 

+ it could be any number of things - a competent piano tuner / tech shoud be able to daignose it in no time.

 

Without seeing it, I would guess that it might be the damper lift bar screw is loose in that section -

 

or maybe warped, if all the other dampers are lifting ok?

 

It may be a simple-fix, or it may be a more time-consuming regulation of the dampers.

 

 

If the fee is right, I'd be ok coming up to Scotland !