Greg, As the buckskin and underlying cushion become worn and compressed, the jack has to pull out farther in order to clear and allow letoff. And, when key is released, jack will have to travel this longer distance to get back in position under the hammerbutt. Jack may drag on leather before hitting rest cushion. Key depth has to be increased to get adequate aftertouch. Without going into more detail, we can see that this scenario = mushy letoff, slow jack return, poor repetition. (My thanks again to Bill Spurlock's class on upright regulation) Roland Kaplan
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