Great videos Steve. Nearly done restoring my 1914 upright and yes indeed it had several rubbing hammers as described here. Resetting the flange screw cured 75% of the rubbing hammers. I also had great results mildly reshaping the flange groove with a finger nail file. Shim paper works the same way, but I didn't have any.
Just worked on a hammer that has gone out of line by twisting. Used a hair straightener to heat the joint and realign. Worked perfectly, just got to be careful of 'dry' joint.
Thank you so much! My issue was that somehow, the little wire that makes up the hinge of the flange(?) Bit somehow came out one side on a good few of the keys and they were all just leaning over. It's scary fixing your own instrument but thank you for making this information available in a sea of people who gatekeep fixing things to the "professionals". Not everyone has the money for that
A small hair straightener works well for burning shanks (twisting shanks) - especially if you have access to a plug and don't want an open flame. Gently twist hammer in intended direction with one hand while massaging the shank with the hair straightener, being careful not to let the hair straightener touch the felt that the shank rests upon (it will melt it).
We have this piano, the upper most hammer in the middle register swings in a circle motion and hits the string next to it making it unplayable. Never thought of this
Thank you for your great video. Our piano is an Irmler P118. There is a sticker inside that shows that the hammers are Abel. The problem is that some of the hammers are not misaligned, but when I touch them with my finger they are very loose. By looking closely I see that the hammer butt pin came halfway out. So I took out these loose hammers like you show in the video and pushed the pins back in. However, the pins of the keys we use the most often come loose every year or so. My questions are: 1) Why do the pins come out? 2) Is there a way to do a permanent repair like adding some glue to the pin before pushing it back in? Thank you in advance!
The reason the pins come out is because they are too loose in the wood part of the hinge. The proper fix for this is to repin the part with a new pin. You’ll also probably need to resize the felt for the larger pin. We have a video on how to do this.
Hi Howard and thanks so much for the excellent video tutorials! With your help i did my first repair and tuning of an older Chilton (SN 7 2006) I ran into a couple of questions that u can probably answer... 1. Several of the midrange hammers were only striking 2 of 3 strings and the shafts on the hammers were made of wood so heating or bending the shafts is out but curiously the hammer alignment looked pretty good...idea's?... 2. 3 of the hammers need replacing but look very custom and all components are made of wood is it possible to purchase/find these or make up some replacement ones?... 3. Key#88 (highest C) the ivory is completely stripped off the key, is it possible to repair/replace this key? Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and your excellent video presentations. Merry Christmas
Great tutorials! Thanks... One question, though. The hammers are likely to be unevenly spaced in old pianos that also have wear from the strings on the hammers. So, once properly aligned those hammers will no longer hit the strings where the dents on the hammers are. Should this be a concern that should also be addressed when aligning the hammers? Thanks...
Yes, if there are deep string grooves on the hammers, you will want to file the hammers first so the grooves are removed. Thanks for bringing up this important point.
Thanks for your reply. I was thinking more about this and have another question. I watched another video (not yours) about changing the hammers. So, when changing hammers, I guess one should first check if there were any papers put under any flanges, right? Thanks...
Hi, just a question as to Hammer alignmnt. When the hammer is not hitting all three strings at the same time in treble region, because the felt isn't perpendiculat to the string what would be the best way to correct it?
If the hammer isn't traveling straight, you would need to travel the flange by putting travel paper behind the flange. If it is traveling too far to the right you would put the travel paper behind the left side of the flange and vice versa.
Hey Howard, I'm having an issue with the hammer head making contact with the top of the damper causing the key to stick. It looks like the hammer head in question is traveling further than the others. What can i do to adjust this?
Hello, I am your student Xavier 57 years ... I wanted to ask you why you put the slip of paper under the crutch and not on the face where it is then screwed onto the bar? Congratulations and thank you again for your excellent work on the popular piano technology
If you put the paper on the face of the flange it will twist the hammer rather than moving it side to side with no twist so it depends on how the hammer is out of alignment which will determine where you put the travel paper.
Ill go look if you have posted something about hammers hitting the string twice.. but I wanted to ask if there is a fix for this? If I play staccato, or just play and Dont hold(p, f, ff etc) the hammer hits the strings twice instead of once, and its very noticable! Its a Brand New Kawai K-300.. this cant be normal?!
So many variables, but I seem to read about this a lot in relation to Kawais for some reason. I think your best bet is having it thoroughly regulated. Usually it occurs a lot with very soft playing but your issue with general staccato playing at all volumes seems to suggest it might be the return springs being in-proportionately strong for the hammers. I hope you figure it out/Howard enlightens us all!
Thank you for this. One question, I have a new piano and I noticed two hammers have grooves moved to the left (it has three but moved, so the last one is on the edge). It sounds good, but, is it better to fix it on time or better wait when it start not sounding right. And does the heating weakens the shank? What is better for new piano, heating or putting the paper? Thank you in advance.
To remove the jack you have to take the whippen out of the action. To do this you would remove the action from the piano and then take out the screw on the back of the action which holds the whippen in place.
Hi Howard, great videos! How would you adjust this if all hammers have moved to the left? They are not hitting the rightmost string in their 3-string unisons, but instead hitting the rightmost string of the note next to them. The hammers are not angled wrongly and the travel seems straight. It's more like all the hammers have shifted a bit to the left. Moving the entire action a bit to the right would fix the problem, unfortunately the dampers seem to be correctly positioned. Also I wouldn't know how to do that. Do you have any advice on this - is there a better way than to correct this individually on each hammer? Thanks.
Most pianos use fairly standard parts so we should be able to get most any parts you need. Occasionally there are pianos or certain parts that aren't available. If you contact me about which parts it is that you need I can see if they are available.
Is this the same process on a spinet piano action? I'm having a hard time figuring it out and the flange screw appears be hidden behind the base of the hammer.
I can put this on my list for future videos. The most common cause for a damper not falling back onto the strings is that the damper lever is broken. Another possibility is that the damper spring is broken. These are the first two things I would check.
Sorry but maybe I did not understand very well the speech ... if I put the paper on the sides of the face of the flange nut hammer or right or left not I correct the trajectory of the hammer on the string? I am not clear when you put it under the crutch I would take a schemino to clear my head because I do not understand English well but alas I only understand a few words tecnici..comunque're doing a great job! Hello Saverio
What you are describing will actually move the hammer in a way that the hammer will not strike the three strings together. If you put the paper on the right side of the flange it would make the hammer angel so the left side of the hammer would strike the strings first. You want to make sure that the face of the hammer strikes all of the strings at the same time.
my piano was great for nearly 30 years. It sounded like it had not been tuned in a while, but it was absolutely playable , and musically coherent. But all of a sudden ( in piano years) it went way out of tune, and a whole bunch of hammers warped. The hammers warped so bad that several are striking strings of the adjacent note; which is obviously incredibly noticeable. My question is; why would it be relatively stable for decades, and then get way out of whack in a very short time period? I am no professional....I am bewildered as to why it would fail so quickly , and so drastically. And please - piano pros- dont tear me apart for not giving the piano any maintenance at all. I know that's wrong, and i'm paying the price. now; but im curious as to why it failed so fast. Lets say I fix the crooked hammers, will the rest continue to fail? Is there wood or glue or something that is failing? Why all at once? - Brian
Hi Brian, The one thing that I can think of that would be the most likely cause is a drastic change in the humidity fluctuation. But if this hasn't happened, it could be that the problems you're having could have been happening gradually and just now the problems are becoming noticeable. It could be with the tuning that the pinblock has gotten to the point where the tuning pins are getting loose and aren't holding pitch as well as they used to. Also for the hammers, if they were gradually over time getting warped and just now they are to the point where they are so bad that they are striking strings for the adjacent note. Is the humidity fairly stable where the piano is located? If not, this would be the cause of these issues.
Thanks for the input. The gradual warping is probably right. The piano is in Atlanta. We swing from dry at times to swimming pool, at times. I'm sure that is extremely tough on pianos. I never really paid attention to the hammers until now. Tuning pins? I think I would like to learn some of the mystical arts of piano maintenance , and repair. Do you know of a good starting point? A book , or even a DVD. Thanks for the patient response . I'm sure some of yáll pros were rolling your eyes at my questions. Thanks!
Yes, piano tuning and repair can be quite interesting. You may want to start by just watching some of our many videos available here on our TH-cam channel. The best book that is available is "Pianos Inside Out" by Mario Igrec. The book is a little bit pricey, but it has more information about the piano than any other book ever published. Here is a link to where you can buy the book on our website: howardpianoindustries.com/pianos-inside-out-a-comprehensive-guide-to-piano-tuning-repairing-and-rebuilding/
I just love your tutorials.
So unegoistic. So much love for the instrument.
The piano is mankind’s best invention since the wheel.
Thanks Mikael! There is a lot to love about the piano.
Same here even though tenor sax is my main instrument. (Harder to tune though ;-)
Well said! Great videos, great teacher! Thank you!
Where does the egoism argument come from? It's kind of random to come up with that. As if any other piano pro is an egoist...
Great videos Steve. Nearly done restoring my 1914 upright and yes indeed it had several rubbing hammers as described here. Resetting the flange screw cured 75% of the rubbing hammers. I also had great results mildly reshaping the flange groove with a finger nail file. Shim paper works the same way, but I didn't have any.
Just worked on a hammer that has gone out of line by twisting. Used a hair straightener to heat the joint and realign. Worked perfectly, just got to be careful of 'dry' joint.
Thank you so much! My issue was that somehow, the little wire that makes up the hinge of the flange(?) Bit somehow came out one side on a good few of the keys and they were all just leaning over. It's scary fixing your own instrument but thank you for making this information available in a sea of people who gatekeep fixing things to the "professionals". Not everyone has the money for that
Thank you for watching!
Going to try this with my family’s 98 year old piano once I have the time. It’s D2 is crooked and won’t play if I have the pedal down.
I have an Ernst Kaps upright Piano, do you have any videos on there mechanisms?
Obrigado por esses vídeos, gostaria de saber como fazer pra está comprando em sua loja direto do Brasil
www.howardpianoindustries.com
A small hair straightener works well for burning shanks (twisting shanks) - especially if you have access to a plug and don't want an open flame. Gently twist hammer in intended direction with one hand while massaging the shank with the hair straightener, being careful not to let the hair straightener touch the felt that the shank rests upon (it will melt it).
We have this piano, the upper most hammer in the middle register swings in a circle motion and hits the string next to it making it unplayable. Never thought of this
It sounds like the center pin which holds the hammer butt to the flange is loose.
Great explanation, thanks!
Thank you for your great video. Our piano is an Irmler P118. There is a sticker inside that shows that the hammers are Abel. The problem is that some of the hammers are not misaligned, but when I touch them with my finger they are very loose. By looking closely I see that the hammer butt pin came halfway out. So I took out these loose hammers like you show in the video and pushed the pins back in. However, the pins of the keys we use the most often come loose every year or so. My questions are: 1) Why do the pins come out? 2) Is there a way to do a permanent repair like adding some glue to the pin before pushing it back in?
Thank you in advance!
The reason the pins come out is because they are too loose in the wood part of the hinge. The proper fix for this is to repin the part with a new pin. You’ll also probably need to resize the felt for the larger pin. We have a video on how to do this.
Poderia enviar um link de acesso a loja ?
www.howardpianoindustries.com Thanks for watching!
Hi Howard and thanks so much for the excellent video tutorials!
With your help i did my first repair and tuning of an older Chilton (SN 7 2006) I ran into a couple of questions that u can probably answer... 1. Several of the midrange hammers were only striking 2 of 3 strings and the shafts on the hammers were made of wood so heating or bending the shafts is out but curiously the hammer alignment looked pretty good...idea's?... 2. 3 of the hammers need replacing but look very custom and all components are made of wood is it possible to purchase/find these or make up some replacement ones?... 3. Key#88 (highest C) the ivory is completely stripped off the key, is it possible to repair/replace this key?
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and your excellent video presentations.
Merry Christmas
Great tutorials! Thanks... One question, though. The hammers are likely to be unevenly spaced in old pianos that also have wear from the strings on the hammers. So, once properly aligned those hammers will no longer hit the strings where the dents on the hammers are. Should this be a concern that should also be addressed when aligning the hammers? Thanks...
Yes, if there are deep string grooves on the hammers, you will want to file the hammers first so the grooves are removed. Thanks for bringing up this important point.
Thanks for your reply. I was thinking more about this and have another question. I watched another video (not yours) about changing the hammers. So, when changing hammers, I guess one should first check if there were any papers put under any flanges, right? Thanks...
When changing hammers, you may be able to align the new hammers so it doesn’t need to be shimmed.
Hi, just a question as to Hammer alignmnt. When the hammer is not hitting all three strings at the same time in treble region, because the felt isn't perpendiculat to the string what would be the best way to correct it?
If the hammer isn't traveling straight, you would need to travel the flange by putting travel paper behind the flange. If it is traveling too far to the right you would put the travel paper behind the left side of the flange and vice versa.
Hey Howard, I'm having an issue with the hammer head making contact with the top of the damper causing the key to stick. It looks like the hammer head in question is traveling further than the others. What can i do to adjust this?
You may need to adjust the damper head to be slightly lower.
Hi, can you provide a link to the parts mentioned? Tool and paper? Thanks!
Hello, I am your student Xavier 57 years ... I wanted to ask you why you put the slip of paper under the crutch and not on the face where it is then screwed onto the bar?
Congratulations and thank you again for your excellent work on the popular piano technology
If you put the paper on the face of the flange it will twist the hammer rather than moving it side to side with no twist so it depends on how the hammer is out of alignment which will determine where you put the travel paper.
Ill go look if you have posted something about hammers hitting the string twice.. but I wanted to ask if there is a fix for this? If I play staccato, or just play and Dont hold(p, f, ff etc) the hammer hits the strings twice instead of once, and its very noticable! Its a Brand New Kawai K-300.. this cant be normal?!
So many variables, but I seem to read about this a lot in relation to Kawais for some reason. I think your best bet is having it thoroughly regulated. Usually it occurs a lot with very soft playing but your issue with general staccato playing at all volumes seems to suggest it might be the return springs being in-proportionately strong for the hammers. I hope you figure it out/Howard enlightens us all!
by the way, your videos are awesome!
Thank you for this. One question, I have a new piano and I noticed two hammers have grooves moved to the left (it has three but moved, so the last one is on the edge). It sounds good, but, is it better to fix it on time or better wait when it start not sounding right. And does the heating weakens the shank? What is better for new piano, heating or putting the paper?
Thank you in advance.
If the shank is warped, then you would want to heat the shank to straighten it out. Otherwise papering the flange would be the best solution.
thanks a lot
how do I remove a jack to replace a spring please?
To remove the jack you have to take the whippen out of the action. To do this you would remove the action from the piano and then take out the screw on the back of the action which holds the whippen in place.
Make a video about dampers that don't fall back down.
Hi Howard, great videos! How would you adjust this if all hammers have moved to the left? They are not hitting the rightmost string in their 3-string unisons, but instead hitting the rightmost string of the note next to them. The hammers are not angled wrongly and the travel seems straight. It's more like all the hammers have shifted a bit to the left. Moving the entire action a bit to the right would fix the problem, unfortunately the dampers seem to be correctly positioned. Also I wouldn't know how to do that. Do you have any advice on this - is there a better way than to correct this individually on each hammer? Thanks.
It's possible that the whole hammer rail has been moved somehow. It's difficult to tell without seeing the action.
parts repair where can I find for a leland piano lyon &healy serial L539
Most pianos use fairly standard parts so we should be able to get most any parts you need. Occasionally there are pianos or certain parts that aren't available. If you contact me about which parts it is that you need I can see if they are available.
Is this the same process on a spinet piano action? I'm having a hard time figuring it out and the flange screw appears be hidden behind the base of the hammer.
Yes, the process is the same on a spinet piano. It's just harder to access the parts on a spinet action.
Thanks for the quick response!
can you make a video of sticking dampers that wont reset
I can put this on my list for future videos. The most common cause for a damper not falling back onto the strings is that the damper lever is broken. Another possibility is that the damper spring is broken. These are the first two things I would check.
THANKS!!
Sorry but maybe I did not understand very well the speech ... if I put the
paper on the sides of the face of the flange nut hammer or right or left
not I correct the trajectory of the hammer on the string? I am not clear
when you put it under the crutch I would take a schemino to clear my head
because I do not understand English well but alas I only understand a few
words tecnici..comunque're doing a great job!
Hello
Saverio
What you are describing will actually move the hammer in a way that the hammer will not strike the three strings together. If you put the paper on the right side of the flange it would make the hammer angel so the left side of the hammer would strike the strings first. You want to make sure that the face of the hammer strikes all of the strings at the same time.
You saved my life! Thank you so much! ~
my piano was great for nearly 30 years. It sounded like it had not been tuned in a while, but it was absolutely playable , and musically coherent. But all of a sudden ( in piano years) it went way out of tune, and a whole bunch of hammers warped. The hammers warped so bad that several are striking strings of the adjacent note; which is obviously incredibly noticeable. My question is; why would it be relatively stable for decades, and then get way out of whack in a very short time period? I am no professional....I am bewildered as to why it would fail so quickly , and so drastically. And please - piano pros- dont tear me apart for not giving the piano any maintenance at all. I know that's wrong, and i'm paying the price. now; but im curious as to why it failed so fast. Lets say I fix the crooked hammers, will the rest continue to fail? Is there wood or glue or something that is failing? Why all at once? - Brian
Hi Brian,
The one thing that I can think of that would be the most likely cause is a drastic change in the humidity fluctuation. But if this hasn't happened, it could be that the problems you're having could have been happening gradually and just now the problems are becoming noticeable. It could be with the tuning that the pinblock has gotten to the point where the tuning pins are getting loose and aren't holding pitch as well as they used to. Also for the hammers, if they were gradually over time getting warped and just now they are to the point where they are so bad that they are striking strings for the adjacent note. Is the humidity fairly stable where the piano is located? If not, this would be the cause of these issues.
Thanks for the input. The gradual warping is probably right. The piano is in Atlanta. We swing from dry at times to swimming pool, at times. I'm sure that is extremely tough on pianos. I never really paid attention to the hammers until now. Tuning pins? I think I would like to learn some of the mystical arts of piano maintenance , and repair. Do you know of a good starting point? A book , or even a DVD. Thanks for the patient response . I'm sure some of yáll pros were rolling your eyes at my questions. Thanks!
Yes, piano tuning and repair can be quite interesting. You may want to start by just watching some of our many videos available here on our TH-cam channel. The best book that is available is "Pianos Inside Out" by Mario Igrec. The book is a little bit pricey, but it has more information about the piano than any other book ever published. Here is a link to where you can buy the book on our website: howardpianoindustries.com/pianos-inside-out-a-comprehensive-guide-to-piano-tuning-repairing-and-rebuilding/
I'm going to cut a tiny bit off a post it note for my flange paper. 🙂
did it work or do I need to buy the flange paper?
You talk a lot like Dave Mustaine, of Megadeth