Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Replacing swelling action brackets

Greetings,
I am, of a sudden, faced with several pianos that are totally unregulatable. They are of several names, but it appears that they all have the same brackets. I have been sent two sets of brackets, for two different models of piano, and they are exactly the same, so I am hoping that this is a fairly straightforward replacement/regulation job.

What I would like to know ahead of time, if there are those with more extensive experience doing this, is, am I going to be resetting a strike line, capstan line, etc. or do the rails go back to their original setting?
Thanks,

I've done a couple and they have been very straightforward - just a matter of undoing the regulating attempts of previous techs to make the action work...

None of mine were so bad - I've heard of some so expanded that the brackets needed to be cut to get the action out of the piano!

Ron Koval

I've installed some new Young Chang action brackets. Just make sure the action spread is the same and you should be OK. If you've made regulation adjustments with the bad brackets, that will have to be redone. If not, things may fall into place quite nicely. Also, the brackets may "look" the same, but I've found the screw holes in the bracket feet are not at the same angle as the originals. If I recall correctly, the far left, and far right brackets are like the originals However, I had to drill new holes in the key frame for the remaining brackets, and had to use longer screws. This is for the holes in the front part of the brackets, closest to the fronts of the keys. The back bracket holes were OK, and I could use the original screws there.

+1

Action spread is very important. Different models had different spreads and brackets.

Search the forum you will find older threads about this subject.

I have done this many times and used to work for YC.

All the best.

Ed, there's a PTJ article from 2009 (IIRC) on this very topic. The correct action spread is 112.5 mm in pre-1993 models and 113.5 from 1993 on.

The first time I did this job I lacked that piece of information, so I set the rail by aligning the jack to the knuckle core on notes 1 and 88; I assumed that the jack felt was unlikely to be very worn on those two notes, and would therefore function as a good guide. It worked out well, at least on this particular piano.

I remember Bruce Dornfield, RPT wrote a PTG Journal article about this. Seemed to have a very well organized and detailed process. Maybe it is the same article Burnside is describing.

If I remember correctly, the package includes instructions.

It's been a while, but I replaced the action brackets on two YC Pramburgers. The brackets came with a sheet of instructions giving the exact action spread measurements, but once the rails were attached to the new brackets the measurements lined up perfectly. Curiously, one piano required a little easing of the two outboard bracket feet to get them seated. The screw holes lined up just fine, but the feet seemed to be a little wider. I chalked it up to production differences and used a nice sharp chisel to solve the problem.

I did this to a 1997 Young Chang G208, last week. Should be pretty easy for you.

1. Remove stack. Make sure new end brackets will fit. If not, chisel out key frame to make them fit. Holes should still line up. Make sure middle brackets are correct size! I had to reorder the middle brackets, because the originals that were sent did not fit.

2. Replace brackets one at a time, with the stack off the frame. Do not tighten screws, at this point.

3. Return stack to key frame. Screw bracket feet to key frame. The end bracket screws should line up with the originals, along with the back screws of the middle brackets. You may have to plug and re-drill holes for front screws on middle brackets. NOTE: You will need to replace the original screws with #8 1-1/4" wood screws.

4. Tighten screws that attach brackets to hammer rail.

5. Adjust wippen rail to set action spread to correct spec. In my case, it was 112.5mm, but some models have a 113.5mm spec.

6. Tighten wippen rail screws.

7. Regulate.

8. Destroy old brackets, with your bare hands:































9. Beer!