Maybe I missed it, but I don't think anyone has mentioned the good reason for setting letoff a little greater in the bass (because of the wider string oscillations) than in the tenor and treble. I suppose if one were really being rigorous about it (and living in a perfect world), there'd be a gradual taper from bottom to top (finishing with the distance of a gnat's wing at note #88 (!). Allen Wright On Sunday, May 30, 2004, at 07:34 PM, Fred Sturm wrote: > Hi Dave, > I agree, I don't want to feel the hammer letting off on the string. I > suppose we all have different approaches to how we measure actual > letoff distance. I do it by eye, by feel, and by response, so an > actual measurement number is probably not an accurate representation. > But I sure do go for less than 2 mm, in the neighborhood of 1 - 1.5. > There was a time I shied away from such close tolerance because > blocking problems showed up. But further analysis showed it occured > where I had dimpled regulating buttons. Or brand new, fuzzy ones. So I > started ironing my letoff buttons, and that problem disappeared. > Of course, different parts of the country experience different > changes, and we all learn from our own experiences. Bottom line, I > have not found closer letoff tolerances risky. I do fine regulation > over the summer, and almost never find an incipient blocking hammer > during the school year when touching up. Nor do I find double-striking > an issue. I guess that has to be qualified with controlled aftertouch, > drop, front rail punching firmness, check distance, yadda, yadda. > There's no simple answer to any question concerning pianos. > Regards, > Fred > > --On Saturday, May 29, 2004 4:25 PM -0500 "David M. Porritt" > <dporritt@mail.smu.edu> wrote: > >> Fred: >> >> Just musing here, but I do think a "reliable" regulation has some >> merit. >> I've regulated pianos to the gnat's eyelash and had it go south on me >> making blocking hammers, or double striking hammers. Generally, when >> you >> go back to fix that you say something about fine regulation being very >> close to blocking. I don't think the customers are impressed at that >> point. You regulated, you had to come back and fix it. In their >> mind it >> was wrong. I heard Bill Garlick once tell a class that if you're >> going >> to regulate it that close make sure to hang around for the concert! >> >> I live 17 miles from the school so I do tend to like a "safe" >> regulation. >> I don't set it at 3mm but I don't like it so close that you can kind >> of >> feel the hammer letting off on the string. In addition, in a recital >> hall seating 500 there is seldom any playing done at the pppp level >> such >> that the note would miss. Most recital playing is pp to sfffffff! >> >> I enjoyed his perspective and his comments on voicing. I too mainly >> worry about the striking surface though I understand that this is >> somewhat controversial. Whatever floats your boat! >> >> dave > > > _______________________________________________ > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC