Suprising issue on Yamaha G2 170cm grand 1975 + testing your grand

This is a 1975 G2 grand piano that’s 170cm long. Made in 1975 and it has come into stock. We are assesing it to see what work we need to do. It was part exchange for a Steinway grand that we have just sold.

First of all if we look down at the pedals, we have already shined these

There are two of them. On a modern piano very often it has a middle pedal which is a sostenuto.

Next to the piano we have a Bosendorfer that we are working on

When you press the key down, then these two dampers go up. Unless you press the middle pedal which is the sostenuto (on this piano). You can hold them up so that you can play the other keys. Those played before the pedal will stay up continuously whilst the others will dampen as usual.

We have another video which displays this mechanism more.

Most older pianos do not have sostenutos, and musicians find that they generally do not use them at all or do not use them in general.

Interesting playing the piano, there is quite a variety of weight as you press the keys down. You can see it has been used a lot by looking at the sides of the sharps. This is an indication of a lot of use.

If we press the pedal and play the B and C notes, the B is a lot harder than the C. With the pedal down I can test the weight of each note with 49 grams, the correct down-weight. If I tap the bottom, it should go down. On the C the weights go straight down, on note B, the key does not go down so easily.

The A and B are about the same down weight. The C# goes down very quickly. All these varieties make it difficult to play as subtly as you would want to.

At home you can weight coins to the weight of 49grams or 5 pound coins and one 20pence piece.

You should have to tap the piano gently. This is about the right weight for a piano which may vary only slightly.

To adjust the touch first take the action out, beware that the hammers are not raised and the pedal is pressed down all the time. We do not recommend doing this unless you are a technician.

When unscrewing the hammer to check for tightness also beware to make sure the alignment is the same as it was previously.

Test the hammer to see how many times it swings

In the video the heavier note (B) did not swing on its own, this is too tight. The lighter touch note (C) swung around 9 times. This is too loose.

To change the heaviness of B, we can use Protek.

If you have no lubricant you can work the joint slightly sideways and work it loose.

For professional tuning and maintenance please call (01865) 240634 or email info@robertspianos.com