Pianotech

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

Paul, I totally understand the momentum thing, but, in your opinion, does the soft pedal mechanism on a vertical properly facilitate soft playing - i.e. does it really work?

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

Hi Terry:  Well, I'm not a pianist, so what do I know?  I do have clients who say it doesn't work or doesn't do much.  I ask if they play on a grand, and explain how they work as opposed to their vertical piano. Once they see what it does when they press the pedal, it sort of explains things. Their level of expectation is lower.  If the hammers are bright and there's not much dynamic range, then the difference in volume is probably going to be much less.  Same if the touch weight is less, ie., Yamahas because it's too easy to get a loud sound.   As far as what we can do as technicians, I don't think we can do much if anything.  Someone suggested a mute rail, but that's not meant to be pedaled and it interferes with the feel of the action.  I do know that often the rest rail doesn't move much, or there's some hard felt which prevents it from going very far.  I always try to remove any lost motion so at least I can squeeze out that last few mm's of extra movement.  You could ask them to call another technician for a second opinion.  At least they will understand that you're not at fault and their piano is ok, working as designed.

FWIW.

Best,

Paul

Paul, I totally understand the momentum thing, but, in your opinion, does the soft pedal mechanism on a vertical properly facilitate soft playing - i.e. does it really work?

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

The backcheck wires need to be adjusted so that the backchecks all rise simultaneously when the hammers are  1/2 of  the total blow distance. I was taught

this while training in the Bechstein factory in 1979.

------------------------------
Parker Leigh RPT
Winchester VA
(540) 722-3865
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 09-28-2025 12:18
From: Paul McCloud
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

Hi Terry:  Well, I'm not a pianist, so what do I know?  I do have clients who say it doesn't work or doesn't do much.  I ask if they play on a grand, and explain how they work as opposed to their vertical piano. Once they see what it does when they press the pedal, it sort of explains things. Their level of expectation is lower.  If the hammers are bright and there's not much dynamic range, then the difference in volume is probably going to be much less.  Same if the touch weight is less, ie., Yamahas because it's too easy to get a loud sound.   As far as what we can do as technicians, I don't think we can do much if anything.  Someone suggested a mute rail, but that's not meant to be pedaled and it interferes with the feel of the action.  I do know that often the rest rail doesn't move much, or there's some hard felt which prevents it from going very far.  I always try to remove any lost motion so at least I can squeeze out that last few mm's of extra movement.  You could ask them to call another technician for a second opinion.  At least they will understand that you're not at fault and their piano is ok, working as designed.

FWIW.

Best,

Paul

------------------------------
Paul McCloud, RPT
Accutone Piano Service
www.AccutonePianoService.com
pavadasa@gmail.com


Original Message:
Sent: 09-28-2025 11:31
From: Terrence Farrell
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

Paul, I totally understand the momentum thing, but, in your opinion, does the soft pedal mechanism on a vertical properly facilitate soft playing - i.e. does it really work?

------------------------------
Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano Service, Inc.
Brandon, Florida
terry@farrellpiano.com
813-684-3505


Original Message:
Sent: 09-27-2025 09:52
From: Paul McCloud
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

------------------------------
Paul McCloud, RPT
Accutone Piano Service
www.AccutonePianoService.com
pavadasa@gmail.com

Hi Terry:  Well, I'm not a pianist, so what do I know?  I do have clients who say it doesn't work or doesn't do much.  I ask if they play on a grand, and explain how they work as opposed to their vertical piano. Once they see what it does when they press the pedal, it sort of explains things. Their level of expectation is lower.  If the hammers are bright and there's not much dynamic range, then the difference in volume is probably going to be much less.  Same if the touch weight is less, ie., Yamahas because it's too easy to get a loud sound.   As far as what we can do as technicians, I don't think we can do much if anything.  Someone suggested a mute rail, but that's not meant to be pedaled and it interferes with the feel of the action.  I do know that often the rest rail doesn't move much, or there's some hard felt which prevents it from going very far.  I always try to remove any lost motion so at least I can squeeze out that last few mm's of extra movement.  You could ask them to call another technician for a second opinion.  At least they will understand that you're not at fault and their piano is ok, working as designed.

FWIW.

Best,

Paul

Paul, I totally understand the momentum thing, but, in your opinion, does the soft pedal mechanism on a vertical properly facilitate soft playing - i.e. does it really work?

Paul, I totally understand the momentum thing, but, in your opinion, does the soft pedal mechanism on a vertical properly facilitate soft playing - i.e. does it really work?

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

If the player is trying to play softly, holding the soft pedal down DOES make a difference.  If the player is playing "hard", the effect is "not-so-much".   

------------------------------
Mark Wisner RPT
Fairbanks AK
(714) 337-9074
MarkWisner
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 09-28-2025 11:31
From: Terrence Farrell
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

Paul, I totally understand the momentum thing, but, in your opinion, does the soft pedal mechanism on a vertical properly facilitate soft playing - i.e. does it really work?

------------------------------
Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano Service, Inc.
Brandon, Florida
terry@farrellpiano.com
813-684-3505


Original Message:
Sent: 09-27-2025 09:52
From: Paul McCloud
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

------------------------------
Paul McCloud, RPT
Accutone Piano Service
www.AccutonePianoService.com
pavadasa@gmail.com

My thinking has been that the left pedal on the upright is only supposed to be a "good" enough simulation to the real thing. It's not supposed to work that well.  But you can develop practice and muscle memory so when you go to a real piano that has all the real functionality, then you atleast know how to use it.  It's true that if you play soft holding the left pedal on an upright it will be easier to play softer but only if playing soft like Mark pointed out, but is a weak simulation as far as practical use. Pushing the hammer rail forward would make the hammers more closer to thier center of gravity, which is why it doesn't work if you are not playing very softly - or in a lot of folks cases; it's because thier piano is incapable of playing soft because it hasn't ever been regulated since factory lol 

It's closer to a placebo effect, looking at it from a musician angle.

One piano at a time, right?😀

------------------------------
Matthew Walworth
A.M.O. Pianos
Lebanon, TN 37087
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 09-28-2025 12:31
From: Mark Wisner
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

If the player is trying to play softly, holding the soft pedal down DOES make a difference.  If the player is playing "hard", the effect is "not-so-much".   

------------------------------
Mark Wisner RPT
Fairbanks AK
(714) 337-9074
MarkWisner


Original Message:
Sent: 09-28-2025 11:31
From: Terrence Farrell
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

Paul, I totally understand the momentum thing, but, in your opinion, does the soft pedal mechanism on a vertical properly facilitate soft playing - i.e. does it really work?

------------------------------
Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano Service, Inc.
Brandon, Florida
terry@farrellpiano.com
813-684-3505


Original Message:
Sent: 09-27-2025 09:52
From: Paul McCloud
Subject: Upright Soft Pedal System Function

I always tell people that when you press the pedal and it moves the hammer closer to the string, it's like a pitcher trying to throw the ball without a windup.  You don't get as much momentum, so you get a softer blow.

------------------------------
Paul McCloud, RPT
Accutone Piano Service
www.AccutonePianoService.com
pavadasa@gmail.com

My ¢¢ --

I have never been able to make the soft, or left, pedal do anything that I can hear on either an upright or a grand. On the other hand, I know I don't play well enough to make it do what it's supposed to do in the first place. When I hear good players, on either an upright or a grand, use it I can definitely hear the difference. The customers that I have that have mentioned their inability to hear a difference, uniformly don't have the skill to play softly in the first place. Many mistake it for a way to make the piano overall quieter, like when using a practice, or middle, pedal on an upright. It's easy to spot a customer who uses it this way on a grand, as the hammers will start to wear flat instead of developing grooves. As Alan suggested, if what the customer wants is to use it like a practice rail, and the piano does not already have one, then you need to install one as an add-on, like he described. If they want to use that pedal to make a phrase they are playing more quiet then they just need to learn how to play more quietly in the first place, and then add that in. It's deliberately a subtle difference to start out with, but knowing how and when to use it helps.

My ¢¢ --

I have never been able to make the soft, or left, pedal do anything that I can hear on either an upright or a grand. On the other hand, I know I don't play well enough to make it do what it's supposed to do in the first place. When I hear good players, on either an upright or a grand, use it I can definitely hear the difference. The customers that I have that have mentioned their inability to hear a difference, uniformly don't have the skill to play softly in the first place. Many mistake it for a way to make the piano overall quieter, like when using a practice, or middle, pedal on an upright. It's easy to spot a customer who uses it this way on a grand, as the hammers will start to wear flat instead of developing grooves. As Alan suggested, if what the customer wants is to use it like a practice rail, and the piano does not already have one, then you need to install one as an add-on, like he described. If they want to use that pedal to make a phrase they are playing more quiet then they just need to learn how to play more quietly in the first place, and then add that in. It's deliberately a subtle difference to start out with, but knowing how and when to use it helps.

Wim --

I don't think it was designed for that purpose, but I use it for that purpose myself, on pretty much every upright I see, every time. Very useful for that, indeed. 

What I learned was that original grand piano design had a single pedal for sustain, and later a second pedal, for soft, or unacorda, was added. (That second/left pedal is called unacorda because at the time pianos only had two, not three strings. Shifting the hammers over from bichord, two strings, to unacord, one string, made for a very large, 3db, change in loudness. Today, with the unicorda pedal shifting from a trichord to a bichord only makes for a 1-1/2db loudness change. Hardly noticeable.), Now that third, middle pedal, as I was told, is an American invention of no defined use. It was added purely as a marketing feature so that salespeople could say that American made pianos were better because they had a third pedal. (They could go up to 11. 😁) As we all know, that middle pedal gets used for many things depending on manufacturer and model. Sometimes it's bass damper lift. Sometimes it's sostenuto. In uprights it can get really weird. Most of the time it's for a practice rail but I've seen older ones where the right and middle pedal do exactly the same thing. Sometimes they do so by using two separate connecting rods. Sometimes the two pedals are simply tied together at a single connecting rod. I've even found some where the middle pedal exists but isn't hooked up to anything other than a spring so it feels like it's doing something.

My ¢¢ --

I have never been able to make the soft, or left, pedal do anything that I can hear on either an upright or a grand. On the other hand, I know I don't play well enough to make it do what it's supposed to do in the first place. When I hear good players, on either an upright or a grand, use it I can definitely hear the difference. The customers that I have that have mentioned their inability to hear a difference, uniformly don't have the skill to play softly in the first place. Many mistake it for a way to make the piano overall quieter, like when using a practice, or middle, pedal on an upright. It's easy to spot a customer who uses it this way on a grand, as the hammers will start to wear flat instead of developing grooves. As Alan suggested, if what the customer wants is to use it like a practice rail, and the piano does not already have one, then you need to install one as an add-on, like he described. If they want to use that pedal to make a phrase they are playing more quiet then they just need to learn how to play more quietly in the first place, and then add that in. It's deliberately a subtle difference to start out with, but knowing how and when to use it helps.

The "una corda" or "shift" pedal on grands does attenuate the volume of sound produced but, if working optimally, should accomplish more than just a reduction in decibels. Introducing parts of the hammer strike point that are not compacted like the string cuts in the rest position produces different tone, ideally in gradients. Most classical pianists rely heavily on this to produce the most expansive total pallet possible from a given instrument. Pianist Frederic Chiu has spoken extensively about this in forums geared towards piano technicians.

Wim --

I don't think it was designed for that purpose, but I use it for that purpose myself, on pretty much every upright I see, every time. Very useful for that, indeed. 

What I learned was that original grand piano design had a single pedal for sustain, and later a second pedal, for soft, or unacorda, was added. (That second/left pedal is called unacorda because at the time pianos only had two, not three strings. Shifting the hammers over from bichord, two strings, to unacord, one string, made for a very large, 3db, change in loudness. Today, with the unicorda pedal shifting from a trichord to a bichord only makes for a 1-1/2db loudness change. Hardly noticeable.), Now that third, middle pedal, as I was told, is an American invention of no defined use. It was added purely as a marketing feature so that salespeople could say that American made pianos were better because they had a third pedal. (They could go up to 11. 😁) As we all know, that middle pedal gets used for many things depending on manufacturer and model. Sometimes it's bass damper lift. Sometimes it's sostenuto. In uprights it can get really weird. Most of the time it's for a practice rail but I've seen older ones where the right and middle pedal do exactly the same thing. Sometimes they do so by using two separate connecting rods. Sometimes the two pedals are simply tied together at a single connecting rod. I've even found some where the middle pedal exists but isn't hooked up to anything other than a spring so it feels like it's doing something.

My ¢¢ --

I have never been able to make the soft, or left, pedal do anything that I can hear on either an upright or a grand. On the other hand, I know I don't play well enough to make it do what it's supposed to do in the first place. When I hear good players, on either an upright or a grand, use it I can definitely hear the difference. The customers that I have that have mentioned their inability to hear a difference, uniformly don't have the skill to play softly in the first place. Many mistake it for a way to make the piano overall quieter, like when using a practice, or middle, pedal on an upright. It's easy to spot a customer who uses it this way on a grand, as the hammers will start to wear flat instead of developing grooves. As Alan suggested, if what the customer wants is to use it like a practice rail, and the piano does not already have one, then you need to install one as an add-on, like he described. If they want to use that pedal to make a phrase they are playing more quiet then they just need to learn how to play more quietly in the first place, and then add that in. It's deliberately a subtle difference to start out with, but knowing how and when to use it helps.

Wim --

I don't think it was designed for that purpose, but I use it for that purpose myself, on pretty much every upright I see, every time. Very useful for that, indeed. 

What I learned was that original grand piano design had a single pedal for sustain, and later a second pedal, for soft, or unacorda, was added. (That second/left pedal is called unacorda because at the time pianos only had two, not three strings. Shifting the hammers over from bichord, two strings, to unacord, one string, made for a very large, 3db, change in loudness. Today, with the unicorda pedal shifting from a trichord to a bichord only makes for a 1-1/2db loudness change. Hardly noticeable.), Now that third, middle pedal, as I was told, is an American invention of no defined use. It was added purely as a marketing feature so that salespeople could say that American made pianos were better because they had a third pedal. (They could go up to 11. 😁) As we all know, that middle pedal gets used for many things depending on manufacturer and model. Sometimes it's bass damper lift. Sometimes it's sostenuto. In uprights it can get really weird. Most of the time it's for a practice rail but I've seen older ones where the right and middle pedal do exactly the same thing. Sometimes they do so by using two separate connecting rods. Sometimes the two pedals are simply tied together at a single connecting rod. I've even found some where the middle pedal exists but isn't hooked up to anything other than a spring so it feels like it's doing something.

My ¢¢ --

I have never been able to make the soft, or left, pedal do anything that I can hear on either an upright or a grand. On the other hand, I know I don't play well enough to make it do what it's supposed to do in the first place. When I hear good players, on either an upright or a grand, use it I can definitely hear the difference. The customers that I have that have mentioned their inability to hear a difference, uniformly don't have the skill to play softly in the first place. Many mistake it for a way to make the piano overall quieter, like when using a practice, or middle, pedal on an upright. It's easy to spot a customer who uses it this way on a grand, as the hammers will start to wear flat instead of developing grooves. As Alan suggested, if what the customer wants is to use it like a practice rail, and the piano does not already have one, then you need to install one as an add-on, like he described. If they want to use that pedal to make a phrase they are playing more quiet then they just need to learn how to play more quietly in the first place, and then add that in. It's deliberately a subtle difference to start out with, but knowing how and when to use it helps.

Y'all are missing the obvious:

The middle pedal was invented to separate the right pedal from the left!

Doh!

Wim --

I don't think it was designed for that purpose, but I use it for that purpose myself, on pretty much every upright I see, every time. Very useful for that, indeed. 

What I learned was that original grand piano design had a single pedal for sustain, and later a second pedal, for soft, or unacorda, was added. (That second/left pedal is called unacorda because at the time pianos only had two, not three strings. Shifting the hammers over from bichord, two strings, to unacord, one string, made for a very large, 3db, change in loudness. Today, with the unicorda pedal shifting from a trichord to a bichord only makes for a 1-1/2db loudness change. Hardly noticeable.), Now that third, middle pedal, as I was told, is an American invention of no defined use. It was added purely as a marketing feature so that salespeople could say that American made pianos were better because they had a third pedal. (They could go up to 11. 😁) As we all know, that middle pedal gets used for many things depending on manufacturer and model. Sometimes it's bass damper lift. Sometimes it's sostenuto. In uprights it can get really weird. Most of the time it's for a practice rail but I've seen older ones where the right and middle pedal do exactly the same thing. Sometimes they do so by using two separate connecting rods. Sometimes the two pedals are simply tied together at a single connecting rod. I've even found some where the middle pedal exists but isn't hooked up to anything other than a spring so it feels like it's doing something.