Designing a pedal assist for a grand? to pedal damper with left foot
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Check with your tech! There have been discussions online about making knee pedaling possible for clients - so techs have thought about options before. Most of these have been more permanent solutions that involve a redesign to the trapwork under the piano. Probably more than you want to do!
Starting with the design picture, I'd add an "up and over" section to the left and then down to pedal level. Lots of possible issues with twist and stability come to mind...
Most of these have been more permanent solutions that involve a redesign to the trapwork under the piano. Probably more than you want to do!
Yeah, I definitely don't want a permanent modification. (Trying not to think about worst case scenarios where that would be necessary!)
@Rontuner said:
I'd add an "up and over" section to the left and then down to pedal level. Lots of possible issues with twist and stability come to mindRight, it seems like "up and over" would have lots of room for falling over, or breaking...
Someone on Piano Tell wrote:
disconnect the mechanism (e.g. the vertical rod) of the Una Corda and Sostenuto pedals, then make a horizontal bar to link all three pedals so that they depress/release together.
What do you think about that? Presumably this would be reversible. And I rarely use the other two pedals, so if I could get the left pedal to connect to the damper, temporarily disabling the other pedals, that would be ok.
Is this possible?
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Hm. Interesting approach. Take a look at the back side of your pedals where you would disconnect the two rods. If there is enough room, that might be the best place to clamp two bars across? With the pedals rounded in the front, that might prove more problematic to get a solid clamping force between the pedals.
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Hm. Interesting approach. Take a look at the back side of your pedals where you would disconnect the two rods. If there is enough room, that might be the best place to clamp two bars across? With the pedals rounded in the front, that might prove more problematic to get a solid clamping force between the pedals.
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Two bars, possibly covered with thin felt or leather on the side that will touch the pedal. (hopefully in the back) Probably stronger to be long enough for 4 vertical bolts - 2 between pedals and 2 on the outside.
Yamaha C3? That's the piano at our choir practice tonight. I can take a look.
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You might be surprised at your ability to use the pedal after surgery. I was pedaling the same day of surgery, and every day since my total knee replacement on December 30th. Of course that depends on what type of surgery you have. But, as long as your Doctor approves, I say go for it! Trying to pedal with your left foot might prove to be less than ideal/accurate. Would it be akin to writing left handed if you're right handed?
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Two bars, possibly covered with thin felt or leather on the side that will touch the pedal. (hopefully in the back) Probably stronger to be long enough for 4 vertical bolts - 2 between pedals and 2 on the outside.
Yamaha C3? That's the piano at our choir practice tonight. I can take a look.
Yamaha C3?
Yamaha C2 (2020), I assume the pedal design is the same between these two models.
You might be surprised at your ability to use the pedal after surgery.
Unfortunately, probably not. I think it's two weeks of complete immobility along with NWB, and then another 2-4 of total NWB, and then the slow return to weight bearing and PT would start. It's a horrible process and I want to avoid it if at all possible! But my doc visit last week was kind of grim.
The problem is that this is open surgery. They would have to make an incision along the back of the heel up about 3 to 4 inches. The achilles would have to be removed from the heel bone (because they have to shave off two locations along the back of the heel bone to address a bone deformity and also a bone spur) and then the achilles has to be reattached. I asked the doc about what contributes to successful outcomes, and one of them was adhering to the recovery protocol. So I most definitely would not be pushing it!
Probably at some point, I would be cleared to pedal (presumably/probably earlier than clearance for a return to weight-bearing), but it could be 8 weeks before that clearance.
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You might be surprised at your ability to use the pedal after surgery. I was pedaling the same day of surgery, and every day since my total knee replacement on December 30th. Of course that depends on what type of surgery you have. But, as long as your Doctor approves, I say go for it! Trying to pedal with your left foot might prove to be less than ideal/accurate. Would it be akin to writing left handed if you're right handed?
I was pedaling the same day of surgery, and every day since my total knee replacement on December 30th.
That's great! How are you doing now?
Trying to pedal with your left foot might prove to be less than ideal/accurate. Would it be akin to writing left handed if you're right handed?
What I noticed when I tried it yesterday was that I could get the pedal down, but I couldn't get go up and down... And I felt like my body was twisted. I don't know, maybe I can make it work some how...
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I don't know if I can describe what I'm thinking, but I'll try anyway.
What if you made a box with a hinged pedal in it, and weighted, to rest on the floor to the left of the piano's pedals. The pedal would need to be long enough to create sufficient movement to move the real pedal. Attach a very strong type of thin cord to the pedal so that when you push down on the pedal the cord is pulled down. This next bit is where you may have reservations: You'd have to screw two eyelets into the bottom of the keyboard--one of each side of the piano's pedal unit. The cord from the boxed pedal would run up to the eyelet on the left, across the underside of the keyboard, through the eyelet on the right, and down to the real pedal where it would be attached to the back of the pedal. When you pressed the boxed pedal, the cord--traveling up, across, and down to the real pedal would lift the back of it as if you were pressing your foot on the front of it.
Maybe it's an unrealistic design. It depends on strong cordage and the willingness to screw eyelets into the piano's underside. And, I don't know if you'd be able to get enough power from it to actually lift the back of the real pedal.
Maybe this makes sense, maybe not. I hope so.
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I wonder if your doc could prescribe some sort of rigid boot for you to put on for piano playing.
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