Escapement Adjustment Post Miracle Mod

[cinnanon]

I have a '77 Stage 73 and I just performed the miracle mod. I had the felts on the hammer cams and painstakingly removed those. I installed .054" felt on the .065" bumps with good success. Afterwards, the escapement was really high at both ends of the keyboard. The action felt good, but still sluggish. On top of either aluminum harp support were particle board shims, about .130" thick. I scraped them off and in doing so, achieved a pretty ideal escapement across the board. The action is much more responsive and quick and light like I thought it would be. No hammer bounce either. I did have to adjust the dampers slightly at the bridle strap point. Has anyone else had to remove those particle board shims after a miracle mod? I've read stories of adding shims since the modification supposedly adds height, but I think in these models it is reversed if you do it the way I did.  The white hammer cam felt was much thicker than the pedestal felt that I installed. To me that sounds like the hammer starts off lower rather than higher and also changes the stop-lock position.

[Student Rhodes]

cinnamon,
It certainly seems reasonable that the difference in the thickness of the felt could be the reason you needed to remove some of the shim material.  But I'm not an expert on the geometry of the piano's action.

However, you mentioning of the .065" thickness of the bump triggered something in my brain.   That dimension is a common guitar fret wire thickness.  How impressive would it be to see someone taking the time and care to install polished and dressed nickel fret wire into the pedestal?  Totally overkill, but exactly the kind of hotrod overkill I love!

I think such a mod would look most impressive on a Rhodes made between late '75 and late '77 (or whenever it was that Fender went back to putting the felt on the pedestal) because the wire wouldn't have to be covered with felt.  You'd see the shiny fret snugly installed in the raw wood.   This is probably silly, but thinking about it, I'd bet a polished fret wire would be incrementally smoother action than a piece of plastic that probably gets micro abrasions over time.

But how cool would it look to have that level of craftsmanship on your piano?

That's it...  If I ever get one from that era, I'm doing it!

[pianotuner steveo]

That sounds cool, but it would be hard to find the sweet spot without cutting the track (slot)  into the pedestal first... pretty hard to move if you make a mistake.