Key Rebushing
Place your fingers lightly on your piano's keys. Then move your fingers side to side, left and right. If the keys move with your fingers, you have worn key bushings. That instability can become quite distracting to a pianist. Eventually your keys will make a loud knocking sound when you play.
When the keys are removed from a piano, they reveal a front and center rail. The center rail has tall, thin pins and the front rail has shorter, fatter pins. These pins are what keep your keys centered in their correct position.
This is a close-up of the center rail key bushing. You can see the red cloth inside the opening where the center rail pin fits. The cloth bushing fills in the space between the sides of the opening and the pin. When properly fitted, the key moves up and down freely without side-to-side wobble. Stable and quiet ! !
This is a close-up of the front rail bushing. Again, you can clearly see the red cloth inside the opening where the front rail pin fits.
Replacing worn key bushings is the quickest way to restore that "new piano feel" to your faithful instrument. On day 1, the keys are removed from your piano and taken back to the shop. Then the old key bushing cloth is removed and the openings properly sized. On day 2, the new bushing cloth is installed. On day 3, the keys are returned to your piano.
How long will the new key bushings last? If you have a heavily used piano, such as a teaching piano, you can expect to get at least 10 years worth of service. It is not a task most technicians plan on having to do to the same piano twice. A service life of 20-30 years or more is not unusual.
Call or email me today:
How long will the new key bushings last? If you have a heavily used piano, such as a teaching piano, you can expect to get at least 10 years worth of service. It is not a task most technicians plan on having to do to the same piano twice. A service life of 20-30 years or more is not unusual.
Call or email me today: