About Nordiska pianos

[Saudade]

Hello

I'm not a technician--just a beginning piano student. However, I've been
looking for a decent upright for a relatively low price. I found a
Nordiska--a company I hadn't heard of--for sale. It's supposedly circa
1980, but it doesn't look like it's been played very much--everything looks
relatively new inside, and the exterior is also fairly pristine.

The thing is, it has a very strange set of pedals and a damper system I've
never seen. The middle pedal, instead of creating a single note sustain,
brings down a felt curtain-like structure between the hammers and strings,
which greatly dampens and softens the tone when a note is struck. The soft
pedal doesn't do a whole lot, in contrast. There is no single note sustain
mechanism at all. Moreover, that middle pedal locks down when you press it,
and you have to press it again to unlock it.

What on earth is this?

Thanks,
S.

[Dennis Turner]

Post by Saudade
Hello
I'm not a technician--just a beginning piano student. However, I've been
looking for a decent upright for a relatively low price. I found a
Nordiska--a company I hadn't heard of--for sale. It's supposedly circa
1980, but it doesn't look like it's been played very much--everything looks
relatively new inside, and the exterior is also fairly pristine.
The thing is, it has a very strange set of pedals and a damper system I've
never seen. The middle pedal, instead of creating a single note sustain,
brings down a felt curtain-like structure between the hammers and strings,
which greatly dampens and softens the tone when a note is struck. The soft
pedal doesn't do a whole lot, in contrast. There is no single note sustain
mechanism at all. Moreover, that middle pedal locks down when you press it,
and you have to press it again to unlock it.
What on earth is this?
Thanks,
S.

It is a mute or "practice" pedal, and it is doing precisely what it was
designed to do. Nordiska from 1980 would be a Swedish piano reputed to
be a fairly decent one, although I've never encountered one personally.
Nordiska from the late 80s or later would be Chinese made. The early
Chinese ones were of rather dubious quality although they have improved
greatly over the intervening years.