Thanks for being generous with your expertise. My problem today: even with the key removed the hammer is sluggish and not returning. The problem is more likely if I slowly push the jack/hammer as opposed to a quick attack which causes rebound. Also, There is a very quiet squeek audible when that particular notes mechanism is returning... the squeek seems to be in the hammer's movement (not the jack)... hope I'm using the correct terminology. Confusingly the squeek is not always there even when the sticking is happening. Another clue is that the after the key is released one its jacks - the on activated by the key - not the one that pushes the hammer - returns only about 3/4 of the way to its original position. Also, lifting the key up a bit knocks the mechanism back. Any thoughts would be appreciated, Ernie Tollar

Very informative. I appreciate all of the information that you have given to me. Now if only my school would let me perform repairs on our pianos I would be able to try and find out what is wrong with the ones that we have. I struggle to understand why I pay $11,000 a year to go to a school that has only one tuned piano and several ones with keys that don't work or are out of tune...

THANK YOU for generously sharing this information to help us with our own pianos instead of "this is too hard for you, call a technician"

I need to thank you so much. I suddenly had a key start sticking out of nowhere and I hadn't got a clue. I had longed for an acoustic for years and years while stuck with an electric and when I finally got him I fell completely in love. I LOVE my piano so much it's ridiculous and it was really upsetting me. I've got a great piano tuner and I know he could fix him but he's not due for another 2 months and I've not got the money to call him in right now. But from watching your video I've just fixed it! I am so relieved and happy so thank you so much. Alf says thank you too (I named my piano Alf lol). 🎶☺️🎶

THANK YOU!!! You fixed my little Spinet 64 (that I got for free because the keys were sticking)!! I'm sooooo grateful for your video!!!! ALL they keys were fixed with a simple adjustment of the front board, except one white and one black... and I have faith that you will help me fix those, too! If I need any parts or tools, FOR SURE I am coming to you. :) Thanks again!

Great video. I had a key that wasn’t behaving 100% like the rest. It wasn’t sticking, but it lacked that tiny nuanced final bounce. After checking everything else, I couldn’t find a reason. I did notice the key pin appeared larger than the rest, but hadn’t seen this video yet. So, after seeing this, I remember the key pin - Turns out the key pin was turned just a bit. I placed it back to where the wider portion faces left/right, and all is perfect.

This was a great help! Thank you for sharing your trade. I actually found out that my piano (1912 Francis Bacon Player Piano) keys were sticking because of corroded felt pads below the keys. Flipped the pads over (will later replace) and lightly sanded the bottom of the keys. No more sticking keys! Glad the “stick” wasn’t in the action.

After I replaced the treble damper felts on my old Bell upright, one of the black keys was sticking. I found that the red felt on the key cover that sits above the keys, had come unglued and would not allow that one key to come up all the way. Love your videos Howard - your parts and tools are great also.

Just fixed a sticky key on my piano using this video. Thanks! (The piano tuner who came earlier said that it would stop being sticky if we played it more. Yeah right! No way would that pin have turned itself. Besides - no fun playing if one of the keys doesn't lift up.)

Thank you so much for being honest and freely sharing your information. Tuners in my country are very secretive and they don't explain things to customers (even those who are musicians). I'm very grateful. Wishing you all the best!

I am forever grateful to you! Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. I fixed my stuck key in a couple of seconds. Thanks to you I can play the pieces I love again!

Thank you so much! I just bought a piano at a huge discount because the owner did not want to have a technician fix four dead keys. My husband got .31 cents out from between the keys! lol The piano is perfect now.Thanks for the tips.

Another key problem is warpage. A slight warping of a keystick could cause the key to rub against its neighboring key causing one, or both, keys to stick.

Thanks for your videos. I finally got some confidence and took my piano's action out. I got the Protek CLP from your store. It worked great. Wound up having to do the entire action, but your videos got me through it.

What an excellent video. Thank you. Our piano was bought new about 30 years ago. Our children never really took to music, so the instrument has stood idle for most of that time. Now I want to learn, so perhaps it wasn't entirely wasted. I shall now open it up and look for the cause. It's one key only, so I am hoping it isn't too bad. Best regards form the United Kingdom.

I love you man watched your tutes from last night and was able to fix my upright piano thnx very much

GREAT VIDEO!!! I DIDN'T NOTICE THE CRACKED WOOD ON THE KEY (at holding pin) UNTIL YOU MENTIONED TO LOOK THERE! WHEN I WENT TO TAKE THE KEY OUT IT BROKE IN TWO!!!!! USED APPROPRIATE WOOD GLUE, AND NOW I'M BACK IN BUSINESS!!!!! 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

wow thank you! the key slip was just screwed too much into the piano, i loosened it a bit and now it works perfectly!

It seems like my issue is with the whippen not returning, as you described especially with the dampers lifted. I noticed it unfortunately just started happening more frequently to one of two problem keys so I’ll try and address it soon. My piano is, inconveniently for repair, a roll player, so I hope I can somehow poke through all the machinery to get to it without gutting it first. Thanks for the video!

Your videos are fantastic! I was looking for tutorials over internet about how to do right maintenance on my piano, but could not find anything useful. And here comes the day when I found your videos. This is the gold mine!! Thank you so much for uploading all this valuable knowledge to KZfaq. :)

Small piece of paper was sticking mine up, glad I kept watching lol

Thanks so much for your videos. You're the man! This video helped me out a lot. I had a couple of sticking keys in my old piano and it was caused by corrosion on the front pins. I cleaned them all up and the keys are now playing smoothly. No sticking keys anymore. Thanks again!

This is the best video, I found on the subject. Real quality content! Thanks a lot for sharing!

Thank you so much.. finally I know what's wrong with my piano

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, I have an old piano off a ship and am about to restore it but no nothing of the internals of the piano! I trust myself though especially with the knowledge you have bestowed upon me hahah cheers

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I will now have a try at sorting a couple of sticking/non playing keys on my Wife's beloved piano

Thank you for this! You're a great teacher.

Wow, I am SO glad I thought of checking for this on KZfaq. I have the exact problem you went into detail about - the key that will play, then not. I am opening that sucker up tomorrow. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge! And for being so detailed.

Wow this is the most helpful video I’ve ever seen on diagnosing sticking keys!

very thorough. thank you very much.

Great video. I have a problem with one of my keys sustaining after hitting it, but the sustain pedal is not active. Any idea how to repair that condition? Only one key is doing it. Thank you!

It's just so wrong to have a beautiful piano and not be able to use it. Terrible shame. I'm really itching to play. But those sticky keys ruin it for me!

Great video Thank You!

This was incredible! Thank you! It turns out I had out of place hammer springs! Easy put back in place

Thank you for such a comprehensive tutorial! I was given a Lester Betsey Ross Spinet that had not been turned in a long time , thanks to your instruction , it sounds GREAT now! Thank you so very much!

Much appreciated! Thank you so much!

Best one so far!!

Very great, pragmatic and comprehensive tuition..Compliments.

Thank you so much for all these videos. I've learnt so much watching them. You rule!

Well done!

Thank You for the idea. 5 Stars for me! 👍👍👍👍

your videos are very helpful. thanks for posting. we appreciate it very much.

Great video, though I don’t think I can trust myself to do that lol

Thank you for this and all your informative and well-presented videos. Great work, and I love ordering parts from your site. Easy to use, good quality, and trustworthy.

Many thanks for this very informative video. I have a particular problem. I have just purchased a brand new upright piano with a Renner action with Renner hammers. However, I am finding that I sometimes play keys that do not sound, or do not sound properly. I am pretty sure it is because I am releasing some keys too slowly. So I went through the whole 88 notes playing each one releasing at different speeds. Nearly 90% of notes had an issue, some far worse than others. If I quickly released a key after playing, there was no problem. Some had to be released very slowly (impractically slowly) to show a problem, but others at greater release speeds which meant I could not play properly. I do not believe it is an issue with lost motion, as pulling on the rest rail a little and the hammers do move with it, though when pressing a key the hammer appears to move immediately. So, given the piano is brand new, with a quality action, all I could think is that it may be due to humidity. It is summer and we have had a lot of rain and humidity is currently around 70% at present (had the piano two weeks). Any ideas? I would add that my other piano (a Ritmuller RS122) in the same room and only a year old (but 1.5hrs of play a day), has no issues whatsoever and indeed the action is far better than the Renner for repetition as I can play very quickly on the same note without the key having to come back to the top, which is impossible with the Renner action which blocks unless the key returns to the top. Any help much appreciated.

Hi Howard, hope you are doing great. In this video at 8:42 you mention that the sticking problem due to jack flange reveals itself when you push the damper pedal. My qiestion is what is the correlation between these two ( i. e. Damper pedal and sticky key due to tight jack flange). Because when i see the video where you explain the upright action i do not see any relation (but I agree that it is true. I have experienced that before) Thank you

I just bought a 1960's Wurlitzer spinet. The f key left of middle c was playing intermittently. After looking into the action, I noticed the jack was leaning on the jack just to the right of it. After further inspection, I found the jack pin almost all the way out of the flange (this is what caused the jack to move way out of position to strike the hammer butt). I managed to slide the pin back into place....and this worked for awhile, but the pin eventually slid back out. Have you ever seen problem before? I called out a piano tech....I'm hoping he can find a slightly larger pin to fix this...

Great video, very informative, covers so many possible causes and fixes for common problems! Thanks!

Super informative. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

Brilliant, thank you!

Very informative. Thank you very much for sharing and using time to share your knowledge and profession.

Excelent! Pure knowledge, Thanks for sharing !

Just watched the video and it's very instructive. My problem is probably more of a flange pin problem (repetition on key eventually makes it stick) but the other thing I noticed is that the lower action piece moves sloppily left and right when I wiggle it in place, whereas the other keys' action pieces stay put. Is that indicative of another issue?

Great video. Very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Very useful. Thank you! 🙂

Thanks very much Steve for a very informative video!!!

I've played a piano before which is in need of repair, last time I was with it the keybed seemed to be 'locked' - I mean you could put your arm across it and nothing would depress. Hopefully it can be fixed... thanks for the video! I'm still watching it. .

another method apparently is to depress firmly & slowly but gently move the key from side to side whilst depressing it so it causes the felt bushings in the key to self-compact once again and ease the sticking key? -does this sound right?

I’m curious about piano repair school. Is this something you just learn on the job or is there a place I can go to become a piano repairman?

What happens when the hammer does not reset to its resting position? I looked and nothing seemed broken nor loose nor lacking any spring/parts. Just baffles the mind. Also can the sustain pedal rod be repaired as its tip is rusted and broken off? Or does it need to be replaced completely? Where do you even get parts like that? What's the cost?

Thank you so much for your generosity.

What about when the key can’t be pushed in at all? My grandparents have a Story & Clark cabinet grand, and I was hoping to see if I could fix some of the keys, and hopefully tune it. My first issue is I don’t even know how to open the front panel to view the hammers or action though. It’s really hard to find tutorials on this stuff.

Thank you for this video! It helped me a lot :)

Thanks! Your videos are amazing! One thing I notice on one key of mine: The jack seems to be pressing a little too hard against the hammer but so that when the key is pressed, it kind of sticks then shoots out to where it is supposed to go. How would I remedy this?

Outstanding!

Thanks so much, but can you please just come over here and do it for me! 😂 I was up all night. I don't know how you got the hammer off but I'm sure it's my springs. I need to find a guy near Hpuston that I can afford! Bit I learned a lot so maybe if I talk the lingo I just learned u won't get overcharged...

Thanks alot for the info!!! very helpful!!!

My daughter and son-in-in law bought a used Aerosonic by Baldwin Saturday from FB Marketplace in our little Texas town and it has several problematic keys. I told her "it's not rocketscience" and I might be able to fix, so they bought it. There was a bunch of mouse nesting material inside and a pen lodged inside under the wippens ? ...which we painstakingly removed. Now most of the keys work, except for 2 that have cracks near that part (where you said they often break) and several in a row that go down and stay there. My question is, how do you get the lid (the lid that slide over the keys)? we removed most of the other parts that were interfering with seeing what was going on, but couldn't figure out how to remove that. The previous owners kept it in their barn ! and so it has a lot of grit/sand/dirt in all the nooks and crannies (It was 10pm and very dark when we decided we needed to use their UHaul truck to get a piano before we had to return it). I told her we'd tackle the piano again after we researched it...then I came across your very thorough and helpful video. Thank you! Thank you!! THANK YOU!!!

great help thanx

Great video and explanation!

...thanks for posting....very helpful....wish me luck.....

I got sticking keys only when I step on the sustain pedal. When I don't step on the sustain, keys are perfectly fine. What could be the problem?

My piano got one key that is sticky only when the pedal is pressed. But it rebounds pretty quickly with pedal is released. My tuner had a look at it but he couldn't fix it. What could be the cause?

Thank you.

Do you renew some videos or come with new items. I is all on a slow motion scale. Thank you for your support since 4 years ago.

Awesome video! Would this advice also be useful if the key is stuck up/won't depress?

Thank you kindly for this

Hi Steve. Did you ever have these straight-strung.overdamped uprights in the USA in the 1800s/early 1900s as we had here in Britain? David Boyce one of the local piano tuners here has a great website with lots of info about the apparnt "Cottage Industry" of piano workshops churning out budget pianos in the heyday of the piano in the 1880s and 1890s and later and they used the birdcage action. I'd presume you had the same sorta industry over there too. That action reminds me of my very first piano in white it was straight-strung and semitone flat and really out of tune. I also played a very worn Arthur Allison & Co upright which I have a video andnsome photos of this week, the action was very light which I like even though that's not what a good action is for developing finger strength but it really reminded me as I'd forgot what my first piano sounded and felt like. Great videos keep em up. www.davidboyce.co.uk/birdcage-pianos.php

Thank you

Can you test the jack pin tightness without removing the piano action? Can you lubricate it as a least effort attempt at a fix? If yes, what lubricant to use?

Thanks for this video. For my piano i press is ok but sometimes it got stuck only the white key i have to press it again to make it bounce up? Whats the issue im having

What are the thin spongy wires that come down to make the hammer return? Some of mine are broken or bent out of shap, can you help? Any tutorials on this? THANKS!

This is most interesting. I hv an old piano that has a couple of keys that sometimes don't play. professional piano tuner said the springs are weak. will try my hand at replacing the springs for the challenge. thx so much! btw are the wooden parts for the keys all standard for all pianos? the hammer, keys, jack etc

Hi Howard. I got problem in my old piano ( Ottostein , around 20 years ). Some key pin are twisted so it can not move freely. Can you show me how can I reform the twisted key pin?

Hi Jay, I'm glad you found the information to be useful. The issue of the hammer double striking is called a bobbling hammer. We do have a video that helps to diagnose what the cause of this is. Here is a link to this: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/es15idSa0NLPl30.html

Awesome video. ...mkay...

Hey Howard! Me and a friend have been working on a upright piano and we took off all the bridal strips to tighten the action and when we put them back on now some of the keys stick and the hammers are heavy. I did some research and it seems to be a common mistake for first timers to do something like this. Something the jack in the hammer system causing it?

Our piano got wet by the rain 😭 the keys would stick because it's wet 😭 what do I do?

Very well......tank's

Great !

I have a D and D# keys that seem to be rubbing against each other way in the very back. Is that fixable or do I have to get them replaced?

If i press some of my keys while holding my pedal, some of the keys like you said arent playing after a while hitting them, i watched the hole vid but i dont understand how to fix..

I have a key that when you strike it is hard and does not want to go down what is that? How would you fix it?

I have Steinway baby grand. Somehow a pencil rolled down the key lid and is lodged between the strings and the keys. How do I get the lid that covers the keys off to get the pencil out? Thanks

I have some front row pins that are rotated like you said in the video, and they are causing my keys to stick. I tried rotating them back to the correct orientation, however I was not able to do so by simply using my fingers. Do you have any tools or techniques to recommend in order to rotate the pins back into the correct position?

I don't know the names of the parts or anything but basically,a little square of felt fell off and that keys still plys good but the felt is stuck under another key and that key I have to press really hard to play it,I don't wanna spend 100s of dollars to get it fixed,and suggestions?

I have a problem with sticky black keys. When I press a black key the front of the black key gets stuck to the white key and therefor isn't able to come back up. Any idea how I can fix this problem?

I have hammers on my piano that bounce and jiggle when depressed. Do you possibly know how to fix this? I've been trying to figure this out forever, it just started happening about a year ago. Im desperately trying to fix this it really hurts my practice.

I have a problem with a "squeaking key". the key bushing kind of rubs on to that metal pin and produces that sound. i watched a video where u can get a screw driver and just push the bushing against the wood away from the pin. that worked for a lot of the notes that squeaked except a few that were squeaking a lot. how can i fix this?

Tksss