Piano touch too heavy

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 7/26/99 1:34:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time, ted@brevard.net 
writes:

<<  As I was
 leaving with the action he said "It's got a heavy touch, see if you can do
 something about that?".   When I got the action on my workbench and did
 touchweight measurements I got downweights of 52 to 60 grams and upweights
 from 24 to 38.  These numbers are within spec as far as I can tell and the
 action should not feel heavy to the touch.  So what do I do now?  Any ideas
 or comments? >>

Since your touch up and down weights were reasonable, you can assume that the 
customer only perceived the touch as being heavy because it is out of 
regulation.  I'll bet that when you adjust your capstans so that the hammers 
are off of the rebound rail, you will see your key level improve quite a bit 
too.  If the keys have a lot of lead in the forward end, once the hammer 
shanks begin to rest upon the rebound rail and further compression occurs in 
the wippen cushion and the knuckle, the key will lower itself because there 
is not enough weight from the hammer shank assembly to counter balance it.

Concentrate on the basics:  Tighten all of the flanges, first and foremost.  
Correct the spacing.  You can do this easily by looking at the marks in the 
hammers.  If all or most are too far to the left (a common condition) put 
some shims behind the block on the left side of the keybed that the action 
rests against.  This will move everything over nicely, then even out your 
spacing.  File the hammers.  This may even take a small amount of weight off 
of them.  Whatever weight you remove form the hammer will multiply by 5 on 
the key end.  One gram off the hammer will decrease touchweight by 5 grams.  
So even a half a gram of weight can make an important difference.

If the knuckles are flattened, bolster them.  This will automatically reduce 
the amount of capstan adjustment you need to do.  Clean, brush and lube the 
knuckles.  Clean the keyframe and lubricate the keypins and the bushings as 
you are setting the keys back in.  If you have determined that the capstan 
must be turned a great deal such as at least one full turn, use a wrench or 
capstan or driver to turn the capstan a full turn (or whatever amount you 
have determined) as you are replacing the keys with the action stack removed. 
 This will give you a rough adjustment that will take much of the tedium out 
of turning capstans.

If the action centers are at all sluggish, use Protek to lubricate them (or 
alcohol & water to shrink them).  Level the keys if needed and make sure 
there is enough dip.  Make sure the keyframe is properly bedded, that the 
studs are neither too high or low.  Clean and lubricate the keybed not only 
for the action to shift properly but so that you can take it in and out 
easily while you are working on it.

In the condition you describe, there was probably little or no aftertouch.  
This alone can make the action feel "heavy".  Having the action well prepared 
and comfortably regulated will make getting a response from it much easier 
for the pianist, therefore it will seem "lighter".  Finishing it off with a 
good tuning, the pianist will find that getting music out of it will be so 
much easier that the "heavy touch" issue will be a moot one.  You may in fact 
find after doing all the above that your touch weights have measurably 
improved a small amount as well.

Don't forget to check the damper upstop rail as the last part of regulation.  
If it is too high, it can make an otherwise well performing action seem 
"sloppy" or "ill-timed".  If it is too low (rather unusual but possible), it 
will definitely interfere with key travel and aftertouch and cause tha action 
to feel 'heavy".

Going through the basics in such a case will most often solve your problem.  
Removing material from the hammer moldings, the shanks or the wippens, 
changing action geometry or key weights are all something to consider only 
after you have done the basics.  If the keys have a lot of lead in their 
fronts as mentioned above, that can make the down weight easier but it also 
causes some inertia which can feel heavy and it compromises the upweight.  
>From what you have said so far, removing or adding key leads would not be 
necessary and might even be counterproductive.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin