Pianotech

I've been slow in picking up an issue that I now understand has been present for a while.  The Fazioli F278 here at the university has been making a knocking noise when the shift pedal is fully depressed.  As I probed into it, I discovered that the shift mechanism would move the action frame just enough that the trichord hammers would clear the left string (not enough that the string would find the next groove in the hammer) but even with this minimal amount of shift, the shift lever was at the extreme limit of its travel.  It was bumping on the bottom of the keybed.

It was clear that the keyframe stop on the left side of the action cavity had never been shimmed out, and that the hammer shanks were in an appropriate position over the wippen flanges, so everything in that regard seems to still be in its factory configuration. 

Three possible solutions occurred to me.  The first was to affix a temporary shim to the keyframe at the shift lever contact point.  I fashioned a 2mm thick rectangular masking tape shim (about 1" by 1/4") but that may well get scraped off next time the action is slid into the action cavity.  I could pull out the shift lever and somehow bend it to make more travel possible at the keyframe end, or I could fashion a more permanent/durable shim with a taper at the back end to protect it from the shift lever.

It seems odd to me that I should even be encountering such an issue in a piano of this caliber. 

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Floyd Gadd RPT
Regina SK
(306) 502-9103
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Thank you Don.  The contact area on the keyframe is a hard lubricious plastic, so I'm going to try fashioning a shim out of some acetal copolymer I have on hand, already in an appropriate thickness.

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Floyd Gadd RPT
Regina SK
(306) 502-9103
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-31-2024 10:22
From: Don Mannino
Subject: Fazioli shift issue

This is something that I've seen in other pianos, even very fine ones like your Fazioli. They are still built by people, and that pedal lever clearance can be hard to gauge during assembly. 

Flip the action over and glue a maple veneer shim on the bottom where you put the tape. I haven't seen the Fazioli Keyframe configuration, but it should be straightforward. 

Of course, sand the distal edge of the shim so it won't catch and be torn off when pushing the action in. 

Don Mannino

Sent from my phone. 

Nearly 20 years ago I had an identical problem on a new Steinway D. Unfortunately my memory is a little dim, but I seem to remember drilling new holes in the trap work to shift the lever over maybe 3 mm. I turned the two trap pieces of wood over, so I could drill in new wood and retain the screw holes in the key bed.

I think I may have also installed some felt on the keybed and/or on top of the lever, to eliminate the possibility of a heavy footed pianist getting it to knock, but that might have been another piano.

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Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm@unm.edu
http://fredsturm.net
http://www.artoftuning.com
"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-31-2024 13:13
From: Floyd Gadd
Subject: Fazioli shift issue

Thank you Don.  The contact area on the keyframe is a hard lubricious plastic, so I'm going to try fashioning a shim out of some acetal copolymer I have on hand, already in an appropriate thickness.

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Floyd Gadd RPT
Regina SK
(306) 502-9103
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-31-2024 10:22
From: Don Mannino
Subject: Fazioli shift issue

This is something that I've seen in other pianos, even very fine ones like your Fazioli. They are still built by people, and that pedal lever clearance can be hard to gauge during assembly. 

Flip the action over and glue a maple veneer shim on the bottom where you put the tape. I haven't seen the Fazioli Keyframe configuration, but it should be straightforward. 

Of course, sand the distal edge of the shim so it won't catch and be torn off when pushing the action in. 

Don Mannino

Sent from my phone.