[CAUT] lighter touchweight

[Jeff Farris]

  Alan (and the rest),

Thanks. I am familiar with the touch/tone relationship. Once a little 
juicing made a player feel like it was a little lighter.  This guy is 
quite an accomplished jazz player. He loves the warm tone and doesn't 
want any hammer work to change the tone. The hammers were filed not 
too long ago. They are tapered nicely. Keypins and capstans have been 
polished and lubed. Key bushings are in good shape.  I have never 
heard of this technique mentioned by others of putting a thin strip 
of paper or felt punching behind the balance rail pin. Wouldn't that 
affect key height?  Or this is just as a test?

Thanks again to all,

Jeff




>Jeff,
>
>Others have offered good info technically. However, it would be a good idea
>to really explore with the pianist exactly what they mean by "feel lighter."
>It could indeed be a mechanical issue. But it might instead be an issue of
>tone perception leading them to feel the action as heavy. The interplay of
>tone and touch are wound tightly together for many pianists and the
>vocabulary used to describe the problem often reflects this. So touch
>problems come out as tone problems, and vice versa.
>
>Alan
>
>
>-- Alan McCoy, RPT
>Eastern Washington University
>amccoy at mail.ewu.edu
>509-359-4627
>
>
>>  From: Jeff Farris <Jfarris at mail.utexas.edu>
>>  Reply-To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
>>  Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:33:53 -0500
>>  To: <CAUT at ptg.org>
>>  Subject: [CAUT] lighter touchweight
>>
>>  Hi List,
>>
>>  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
>>  512-471-0158


-- 
Jeff Farris
Piano Technician
School of Music
UT Austin
mailto; jfarris at mail.utexas.edu
512-471-0158