Weighty Problem

[Don]

Hi,

If you bend towards the player the action will feel lighter not heavier.

At 12:02 PM 3/12/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Do I remember correctly that the U1's capstans are on wire "stalks"?  If
>so, you can bend them just a little off-center front-to-back relative to
>the whippen to alter the touch without a lot of fuss.  I believe that if
>you bent the stalks towards the player, it would add apparent weight to the
>action.  There will be a little regulating to do afterwards, but it should
>be relatively minor.  If the result is not what you wanted, it's easy to
>set things back the way they were.
>
>I saw this demonstrated by one of the Steinway guys at a convention.  The
>change in touchweight was verified by a set of weights he just happened to
>have in his pocket.
>
>ZR!  RPT
>Ann Arbor  MI
>diskladame@provide.net
>
>----------
>> From: Maurer family <ab254@oak-web.washington-ch.oh.us>
>> To: pianotech-digest@ptg.org
>> Subject: Weighty Problem
>> Date: Thursday, March 12, 1998 12:26 AM
>> 
>> 
>>          My client has a Yamaha U1 (upright) that I service regularly.
>> This piano has been very consistant and my client has been very happy
>> with it. On my last service on this piano though, the lady asked me a
>> question that I usually don't hear very often. She asked if I could make
>> the action heavier. It seems that her son, who is the pianist at the age
>> of 12, has become quite good . He entered his first piano competition
>> and had great difficulty playing on the competition piano. It was a
>> grand that was at a local piano dealer's recital hall. I assume that it
>> was a Steinway because he is a Steinway dealer.
>>  Anyway , the boy complained that the piano played exceedingly heavy and
>> that he couldn't play his chosen piece properly. Apparently none of the
>> participants could rehearse on this piano , so they had to play cold
>> turkey.
>>         I explained the major differences between her U1 and a full
>> sized grand and that if her son continued to become more accomplished
>> on the piano that she really should consider upgrading. Her response was
>> that they didn't have enough room for a grand , much as thay would like
>> to have one. Then she reitorated her question.
>>         My experience with action improvement has always been with
>> trying to make actions play easier ,or should I say with as little
>> frictional resistance as possible. How can I solve this customers
>> problem without radically changing what I find is a fine working action?
>> 
>>                             Tunefully,
>>                                     Cliff Maurer (Lunytuner)
>> 
>
>
Regards, Don