[CAUT] lighter touchweight

[Don Mannino]

Jeff,

"Heavy touch" is really to vague.  Under what conditions; i.e., heavy
during soft play" During loud chords? during rapid passages?  Or all of
the above?

A few items to consider:

- As was mentioned, damper lift could be too early.
- Black keys could be set too high - lower them to 12mm
- Front key pins could have high friction.  Polish the pins and apply
Teflon, and make sure the bushings are flat (not worn curved) and well
fitted.
- Jacks are too far under the knuckles
- Knuckles are flat or have loose skin
- Repetition springs are strong and / or drop screws are low
- Hammers are too mellow.
- Hammer center bushings are spongy, causing poor efficiency in hard
playing. 

None of the above will show up in a simple down-up weight measurement.

I know this sounds whacky, but lift the lid and ask for the pianist's
comments.  I'm not sure how you should phrase it, but let them know that
there is a close interplay between tone and touch.  Tell him you suspect
that they may not be getting enough tone for his touch input.

I would hesitate to jump into shimming moving the rail - if the down and
up weight are this nice, you will just begin to move away from the nice
balance the action currently has.

Don Mannino

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Jeff Farris
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 1:40 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] lighter touchweight

Alan,

Exactly! I feel the same way, thank you. This piano feels good to me. 
He knows it is in range for most people. He plays a LOT, and is perhaps
having some arthritis type symptoms. He just wants to know if it can be
a little better. I thought trying to remove just a hair off the hammer
tails might do it, but didn't want to go through the trouble and expense
for him if it still wouldn't be better enough. I don't see how it
couldn't improve a little. I might experiment with that and the shimming
the back side of the balance rail. I'll be sure to re-check damper lift
also.

Jeff


>Jeff,
>
>Part of the reason for my last post is that there are many pianists 
>who'd kill for a piano with low 50s and high 20s. I'd be willing to bet

>that the problem lies elsewhere. Too-early damper timing is often the
culprit.
>
>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