fortepiano touchweight

[William E. Darst]

>How is touchweight dealt with when building fortepianos?
>
>Stanwood

The actions I have built were Viennese style kit actions from Zuckerman.  I
have not examined a lot of original pianos to see how they are set-up in
this regard.  On the Zuckerman the keys are leaded at the rear (with a
single weight) in order to increase the downweight at the playing end to 15
grams. Pretty light!

I have a mechanical drawing of the action from a Cristofori piano from the
Leipzig University collection (push action) on my wall and it shows no
provision for key leads.  I will ask my friend David Sutherland who is
building one based on this design what he has seen in this regard (and what
he plans to do with his) and let you know.

Bill Darst, RPT
Music Dept
UC Santa Barbara