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I have a Yamaha G5 in excellent condition. 30 years old, but the hammers and strings hardly look worn. The previous owner must not have played much. The hammers do have slight grooves in them from striking the strings, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. It sounds pretty good to my ears. What I want to ask about is how to best adjust the dampers.

I always thought the keys were a teeny-tiny-bit heavy. I thought the best solution would be to regulate the dampers so that they lift a little later. This makes it so the action already has some momentum when it starts to raise the damper, and the shorter travel distance for the damper means less work for the finger. The dampers used to lift as soon as you put your finger on the key, which made it difficult to play ppp.

Once that was done, I adjusted the sustain pedal for the shortest possible travel - in other words, the dampers start to lift immediately when you depress the pedal, and the pedal stops when the dampers have only just lifted from the strings, not 3 or 4 mm above as before.

The piano still sounds good, but it isn't so easy to play. When I'm playing with the sustain pedal, all resistance from the dampers lifting with each key is gone, so the key touch is dramatically lighter. How would you adjust this combination of issues?

If you have any questions, please ask. I may not have explained myself clearly enough.

The dampers should lift when the hammer rises between 1/2 to 2/3 of its travel.

You need to have some play (lost motion) in the sustain pedal. Yamaha suggests about 1 to 2 mm. of pedal travel before the dampers start to lift. If the damper levers are sitting directly on the underlever tray, as yours are, the dampers won't work correctly, particularly if you rest your foot on the sustain pedal.

Make sure that the damper wires aren't binding in the guide rail. If they are, the guide rail bushings will have to be eased. Polish the wires where they pass through the guide rail bushing cloth.

Great answer, thank you Tom. I've adjusted my piano accordingly, and I am satisfied with the result!

As Tom said, the damper system was not correctly regulated when you got the piano. 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the string gives some pretty good flexibility in terms of how it will affect the touch. Having it lift immediately upon depressing the key can cause quite a heavy feel.

And as Tom pointed out, pedal play is necessary. Not much, but maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch at the pedal. Adjust the pedal stop capstan to stop the pedal JUST BELOW the point where the black keys lift the damper. In other words, when you depress the pedal and push a black key simultaneously, the damper which is being lifted by the black key should be slightly higher than the rest. White keys should lift the dampers to the same height that the pedal does. With that adjusted correctly, you shouldn't feel any interference with the weight of the damper system while playing.

However, if the keys aren't lifting the dampers high enough, neither will the pedal....

Now I was told to regulate the sustain pedal so the sharp dampers don't lift at the end of the keystroke. Yes the sharps lift the dampers higher than the whites. The damper upstop rail is set just above the point of the sustain pedal so you don't jam the levers into the felt with the pedal. Sometimes you need to replace stop felts in the trapwork to get the proper travel of the pedal to have the right lost motion.

Keith,

I guess as a player, I don't like to feel the weighting and unweighting effect of the damper pedal lifting the dampers off the key ends when I'm at the bottom of the keystroke, particularly when playing chords.

I once wrote a fairly complete description of how to regulate dampers, which could probably be found with a search.

Here's BDB's thread.

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/3/2829.html#000000

Thanks, all. I think we've nailed it. I read BDB's previous thread on damper regulation, seems quite thorough.

By the bye, I initially tried setting the dampers to lift when the hammer is 1/2 of the way up, but the touch became too light. 1/3 was also too light. I finally settled on a point that's probably 1/4 or less - I know it's not what you guys recommended, but it feels good. I hope you won't hold it against me!

What goes up, must come down. Another function of that dimension is that the musician knows precisely when/where the note ends. Good reason for the standard or convention of 1/2 the key stroke from piano to piano.