Piano key leveling

Uneven keys are an unsightly side effect of a well-loved piano. If you play your piano a piano key leveling or not! Over time, the material loses its integrity and the keys settle out of alignment.

Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over , members from around the world. Please Pass It On! Visit Virtual Sheet Music to learn more Advanced Forum Search.

Piano key leveling

Over time, the felt underneath the keys as well as the felt in the action becomes compressed. Between this settling of the felt and dry rotting of paper and cardboard spacers not to mention rodent infestations the keys of many pianos tend to undulate up and down all the way across the length of the keyboard. This can also be caused by damage to the keytops. In this case, you will need to recover the keys. The keys can be re-leveled by carefully adding or subtracting paper spacers underneath the felt punchings. The tool of choice here is a 4 foot level or any 4 foot straight-edge. Make sure that it is true. One way to do this is by laying on large piece of paper, cardboard, or wood and tracing the bottom edge of the level. Flip the level over the line so the line is along the top edge of the level. The line you drew should still match the edge perfectly.

Thank you Jerry! If you want a straight level, go for it. Customers vary markedly on how much uneven keylevel bothers them.

Skip to main content Press Enter. Sign in. Skip auxiliary navigation Press Enter. Contact Us Code of Conduct. Skip main navigation Press Enter. Toggle navigation. Search Options.

A level is an optical instrument used to establish or verify points in the same horizontal plane in a process known as levelling. It is used in conjunction with a levelling staff to establish the relative height or levels the vertical separation of objects or marks. It is widely used in surveying and construction to measure height differences and to transfer, measure, and set heights of known objects or marks. It is also known as a surveyor's level, builder's level, dumpy level or the historic "Y" level. It operates on the principle of establishing a visual level relationship between two or more points, for which an inbuilt optical telescope and a highly accurate bubble level are used to achieve the necessary accuracy. Traditionally the instrument was completely adjusted manually to ensure a level line of sight, but modern automatic versions self-compensate for slight errors in the coarse levelling of the instrument, and are thereby quicker to use. The optical level should not be confused with a theodolite , which can also measure angles in the vertical plane. The surveyor adjusts the instrument's level by coarse adjustment of the tripod legs and fine adjustment using three precision levelling screws on the instrument to make the rotational plane horizontal. The surveyor does this with the use of a bull's eye level built into the instrument mount.

Piano key leveling

If the whites in particular are not level to the eye, you can level them yourself. You need two packets of the smaller paper shims from our Online Catalogue. There are shims for both the center rail pins and the front key pins. They come in several thickness, graduated in thousandths, so that you have many choices as you add or take away in the leveling process. Use it through all of the following instruction to measure the key drop. Lay it on a white key, and push down. The top of the wood block should ideally be level with the key next to the one depressed. If not, you need to add or remove paper shims from under the front rail felt washer or bushing. You should level the keys, from right to left, all of them as instructed below, at the center rail bushing first.

Sancal

Others like "some" crown. One thought is that slightly crowned keys look better than slightly dished keys, which naturally happens over time with more play in the center. Alternatively, you can use a long metal straightedge to determine which keys need to be raised. So, I sat back thinking about it for a bit and then I chose to use a MM ruler to level them all completely even or flat, rather than using my level board. A general rule of thumb is that the spacers added should be about half the thickness of the gap between the key and level. Irrelevant, but gives a visual. Piano Key Leveling. Over time, the material loses its integrity and the keys settle out of alignment. Some seem to prefer no crown. As long as you get an even regulation throughout Last night, I measured mine and it crowns upwards just about exactly 2 mm in the center of my level board. Personally, I think this whole approach was the result of the factory putting a little fudge factor in their leveling to account for settling. Calendar Postings.

Uneven keys are an unsightly side effect of a well-loved piano. If you play your piano a lot or not!

Don't worry about the actual distance that the keys travel, but the evenness of the stopping. The feel is okay. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Steinway the only company that scoops out their keybed in this fashion? If your keys are even, you're happy with the way it plays, and it looks correct, then you're in good shape. Bruce Dornfeld, RPT bdornfeld earthlink. I measured mine directly under the middle of the word "Everett. Joined: Mar Piano Key Leveling Piano Key Leveling As part of the regulating process you want to go through and make sure all your keys are leveled and at the same height. Share Post on Twitter. I eyed it and it looked good so, we'll see how that works. You can double check this by very gently playing the key in question. If things are tangled up inside like, say, an action figure we suggest calling your local technician. Pianos For Sale.