Inertia

[Stephen Birkett]

D. Stanwood said:
> My full projection zone is a conservative recommendation based on actual
> conventional use of hammer weights in the feild.  The upper full projection
> strike range is limited to....
>

When I said `optimum' I realize that this was confusing. I don't
mean there is some magic number, but, as you note, there is a range
of acceptable masses...and esp, now this is of course influenced by
what is commercially available. The point I meant here is that, for
each type of piano, including the modern version, suitable hammer
masses have been determined *empirically*. I don't think theorizing
will necessarily lead to any improvement here, but it may explain
why particular hammerhead masses are associated with particular
string gauges (and tensions)...i.e. why the values arrived at
empirically are good ones. It's a pretty narrow range of masses from a
Cristofori treble at 1g to a Steinway bass hamer at 11g.

> If you are interested in testing heavy heavy hammers and still have a
> playable piano, I recommend using a strike ratio level of 5.0, balance to a
> 58 gram balance weight and bring the final balance weight down to a 38 gram
> level with heavy support springs.
>
I don't want to do experiments, what I meant was do you have any data
which I can do some calculations with?


Stephen Birkett (Fortepianos)
Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
tel: 519-885-2228
fax: 519-763-4686