In a message dated 10/17/2007 11:44:54 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Jfarris at mail.utexas.edu writes: I have a customer who wants his 1975 Baldwin 6'8" grand to feel lighter. It was virtually unused for many years and recently had an action reconditioning and regulation. It weighed off pretty reasonable. Downweight averaged low 50's to 50 and upweight averaged upper 20's to 30. Friction seemed low if anything. There isn't a lot of lead in the keys, as much as four weights in some of the lower bass. The hammers have enough "extra" material in the cove to remove some in an arc shape. I'm wondering if doing only that would result in enough weight loss to make much difference. Has anyone done this procedure not in conjunction with leading, etc. and received good results? Sorry if you already received this. I tried to send this message yesterday from a different source computer and don't know if it went out. :) Thanks, -- Jeff Farris Piano Technician School of Music UT Austin mailto; jfarris at mail.utexas.edu Hi, Jeff - You can expect that each gram you remove from the hammer weight will lighten the down-weight and up-weight be about 5 g. You can test the efficacy of your anticipated modification by taking careful weights on, say # 1; then remove the hammer (OK to leave shank & flange attached) and weigh it. Make a trial modification, coving, tapering, whatever, and re-weigh the hammer. The difference between the 'before' and 'after' will show you the weight savings. (Although you're weighing the hammer + shank assemble, the change will have been all in the hammer.) Reinstall and recheck your down- and up- weights. I have done this sort of procedure to good affect in several cases. However, sometimes there is little enough to be gained to make this seem worthwhile. Sometimes similar or greater gains can be had by other means. [I.e., damper stop too low - or too high - will result in a feel of greater "weight" to the pianist. Same for damper lift. And you've probably already considered what excess friction might contribute to perceived "touch weight".] Sometimes several of these procedures and adjustments can add up to an improvement much appreciated by the pianist. P.S. Didn't know there was such a thing as a 6' 8" Baldwin. 6' 3"? 5' 8"? ~ Tom McNeil ~ Vermont Piano Restorations VermontPiano.com 346 Camp Street Barre, VT 05641 (802) 476-7072 ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20071017/62627953/attachment.html
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