Sticking hammers far from help!

[sashaco]

Hi,  I live in Zomba, Malawi, where a piano tuner only passes through every couple of years, and I have some hammers sticking.  I purchased a Ballindam upright in Nairobi and brought it to Zomba last year.  Last year it went through the hot dry season, the wet season and the quite cold dry season without problems.  As it has heated up from the cold months, several hammers have begun to stay up, making playing quite frustrating.  The rains have not yet come, and although we have had two short storms, it is still quite dry  I am considering taking the action out and perhaps sanding the wooden sides of the blocks at the bottom of the hammers.  Is this a potential solution?  Is there an order of things one ordinarily checks when hammers stick, so as to try the least troublesome procedure first?  I'm not an expert on piano actions (obviously) but I am fairly handy if neccessary.  I would be very grateful for any advice.  Sasha

[richard black]

It's not hard to understand how a piano action works - take it out and have a good look. You will in the end be able to work out why the hammers are sticking: they may be rubbing against something or the pivots may be stiff, or it could be the keys rather than the hammers that are actually rubbing or sticking. It's possible you won't need to do anything more than screwdriver adjustment. Just make sure, before you remove the action, you have a look round to see how it fits for reassembly. Maybe even take some photographs to remind you. On every upright piano I've ever seen, you don't need any tools to remove an action, just undo three or four thumb-nuts at the top, then lift it out.

[sashaco]

Thanks, Richard.  I did remove the action to try to figure out where the sticking was happening. Curiously, the hammers don't stick when the action's not in.  This must tell me something, but I have not yet figured out what.  I marked the hammers that stick when it's in, but can't see anything different about them. The piano's almost unplayable now. The real rains have come, so I'm thinking humidity has something to do with it. I know many people use heating bars inside their pianos to keep them dry, but I'm doubtful anything like that is available here. I don't know how much heat a lightbulb would provide, and, of course, electricity is intermittent here. Thoughts anyone?

[sashaco]

Actually they're sticking even when the action is out now.  There's a little click in the sticking ones, and they all seem to be in the center section of the piano.  They won't stick on a stacatto attack, only when the note is held, but it's not the keys themselves, it's definitely in the action.  I'm now thinking it may be in the bottomost pivot, but I can't see how to deal with that without disassembling the entire action, which I'm very unwilling to try. Incidentally I also have one hammer that sometimes fails to strike all three strings, resulting in a tiny little una corda sort of sound  It's the second D above middle C the edge of the middle bank of hammers where all the other problems seem to be occurring.  I chose this Ballindam over several Yamahas, because even though I found the sound a little brassy, it had a more grand-like feel to the action, and a practice pedal which I thought would be good for the rest of the family.  Perhaps I made a mistake?  Too late now anyway.

[keys60]

It could be a number of factors. You may have to repin the flange that is hanging up or just remove that one note action and manually swing the hammer to clean any gunk on the pin. Many techs don't like the idea and many do, a drop of WD40 on that bushing works. It soaks into the felt and cleans the pin.