A very nice, relatively new Yamaha console piano was painful to play. Not to the ears, but to the hands and wrists. The key “dip” was either never set right initially or had worn itself into a woefully shallow position. Key dip refers to downward travel distance, and should measure about 3/8″. This piano was bottoming out at little more than 1/2″. After a few minutes of playing…ouch, what a pain! This is something like playing an otherwise very nice guitar, with the action set W A Y to high.
Shimming up the keyframe’s balance rail adds to key hight. This global tweak helps make short work of the finer, individual key adjustment that follows, when proper height and dip are set. After regulating the rest of the parameters, the action now plays like new.
My tool box is where recycled playing cards go to die, or in this case (pun), where they go to become integral parts of fine musical instruments. Thank you, King of Hearts!
