Fixing Schoenhut 379 keyboard problem.

[JeanDavid]

I had a problem with my 379-M that a few of the keys near the middle
of the keyboard went down only about 1/16 inch instead of the 1/8 inch
they used to go down. When new, all the keys worked correctly. As a
result, I had to press the keys unusually rapidly or unusually hard to
get the notes to sound.

I took the music rack off and removed the top panel by removing the
two bolts at each end. I then removed the sounding board with the tone
rods by removing the two Philips head screws at each end. This gave me
a view of the back of the keys, the hammers, and the square rod across
the back. It appeared that the back of the keys hit the square rod at
the back and that prevented the key from coming up far enough at the
back. I called Schoenhut and they helped with the problem.

Darryl at Schoenhut told me that the front panel of the piano, with
the Schoenhut trade-mark could be slid right up (I did not realize
that) and then I could remove the keys and find out what was wrong.
Which I did. It turns out that the problem was not that the back of
the keys were hitting the square rod prematurely. Instead, the key was
hitting the front panel. (The pivot under the key is a bit forward of
the panel.) I moved the panel up a slight distance to provide the
necessary clearance. The amount of movement is very slight. I used a
shim about 0.007 inches thick by cutting a piece of old 35 mm camera
film at each end of the keyboard. It did not take much. You do not
even have to remove any of the keys.

But if this happens to you, you do not have to put up with it; it is
easy to fix.