yacht piano advice please! silent keys and permanent sustain

[mistafeesh]

Hi,

I've been given a lovely yacht piano. It's an octave shorter than a normal upright, and instead of a lid, the entire keyboard folds up into the body of the piano. It says it's by J.B. Cramer & Co of London.

Thankfully it's in good tune, but there are a couple of problems, and as my budget is tight (non-existent, in fact!) I was wondering if anyone could give me a few tips before I try and fix them myself...

Firstly, one or two of the keys don't make any sound, or hardly any sound. I've noticed that as you start to fold the keyboard up, the keys stop making any contact with the levers they push, and the silent keys feel the same, if you see whatI mean...

Also, it sounds as if someone permanently has their foot on the sustain pedal at about half pressure.

I've not started poking around inside yet apart from a little sortie to see if I could see anything obviously wrong without undoing anything....

[Barrie Heaton]

By your description you have a bit of lost motion as to the dampers ring on that could be some thing as simple as the action not seated or a more expensive problem like damper springs.

I would bite the bullet and get it tuned, the tuner will tell what are the problems are and your options


Barrie,

[Bill Kibby]

Firstly, is it a yacht piano? Or their Patent Portable? The latter has nothing below keyboard level. Either way, it probably has the dampers mounted above the hammers, and being so close to the top end of the strings, the dampers are never going to be much good. As for faulty notes, regard them as the tip of the iceberg, there are probably many more about to follow!