Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Ok to over-use soft pedal?

Have an '89 tall kawai upright. It's loud and I often 'ride' the soft pedal. Is there any downside to this, such as premature spring wear or something? Thanks in advance.

No, other than it's not good for your technique. Uprights don't work as well with the soft pedal down.

The key touch won't feel right, because the hammers (and hammer butts) are lifted up toward the strings and away from the keytops, so that there is a lot of lost motion (key movement prior to response).

Are you sure? I imagine the hammers would groove differently. Aren't they shifted sideways?

The soft pedal on a grand shifts the hammers sideways, but the soft pedal on an upright lifts the hammers toward the strings. Different action and a different effect. The piano in question here is an upright.

Although the piano in question is an '89 Kawai upright, don't some older uprights (from the 20's) shift sideways a la Una Corda?

I knew I should have added an extra sentence..

Does playing with the soft pedal often on a grand compromise the overall performance of the piano significantly?

Indeed so, I was remiss in not listing those as an exception. I personally have never seen one but I believe they exist. (I have seen an upright with a true sostenuto, but I forget who the maker was.)

There are lots of uprights with sostenuto, but una corda is pretty much impossible on a cross-strung upright. It's hard enough to fit the hammers in. They often wear enough to hit an adjacent string in the bass, even without moving the action. Also, since the dampers are directly attached to the action, moving the action would damage them. I've seen straight-strung birdcages with una corda, but never in a more modern upright.

As for grands, using the una corda will change the wear pattern on the hammers, and it can affect the damper levers of keys which are depressed when the una corda pedal is depressed. But other than that, there's no problem.

I haven't seen one, but I've been told that certain uprights by Tokai (Japan) had a side-shifting soft pedal mechanism. I'm not sure how it works, but I'd like to see one.


Dave Stahl