Specs / Grand Regulation

[Richard Brekne]

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Clark Sprague wrote:

> List:  Muchas Gracias to Antares, who said volumes for all of the non-experts
> out there, who are looking to the "experts" for advice on how to improve our
> skills.  We want to be as good as we can be, and we need your help.  Thanks!
> Clark Sprague

Hmmm.. So we are going to be going back and forth a bit on this on. As usual, we
end up talking about several things at the same time so I'll try to address the
main points as I see them.

Number 1. To all those "newbies" out there who are looking to this list for help
I have the following bit of advice. Start building yourself a library of
reference books. And above all, read them and re-read them. When you have time
and opportunity sit with an action and a good chapter on grand regulation, and
observe what happens as you step through the proceedure. Go to any and all
classes you can on any subject about tuning and regulating. You may hear many
things over and over, but there is always some new tidbit or perspective that can
be helpfull at these things. If you are in Canada and America then find you
nearest RPT and get some instruction, at least from time to time. Not every RPT
is a concert level tech, but all of them are clever enough to be of great help to
someone just starting out.

All this being said, you must understand this. No amount of literature, advice,
or instruction is going to be of much help Until you begin to build and
understanding of how the action works. There are no shortcuts to knowledge and
experience. If you are going to get good, then it is you who are going to be
doing the getting. It is'nt always easy to avoid confusion, and it can be
frustrating to try and find and assimilate knowledge (more on that below). But
stay with it and you will get there.

Number 2. With regard to the apparent difference of opinion between Antares and
myself (at least). We two probably are not all that far apart in the end. At
least previous discussions I have had with specs guys always end up in us finding
out that we agree on more then we disagree. I view this buisness of grand
regulations as being parted into two main schools. Which I loosely refer to the
specs guys, and the non-specs guys. One approach I see a lot of techs, including
RPT's use is to bring out their measuring devices, and meticiously set each point
of regulation to specs. Often enough the result of such a method is that the
action plays like a mac truck. Regulating proceedures written down by factories
rarely include setting things like action spread, checking basic action geometry
and the like. If those are not very correct relative to the specs you are using,
the specs wont work. Where as the non - specs approach can always achieve a very
satisfactory result because its nature is basically to accept the present
geometry for what it is, and make it work. This can be of course misused too. One
can take too many things for granted for sure. In the end tho the best
regulations are a result of a kind of synthesis of these two approaches and rely
on a well developed understanding of how the action works. Either way..
understanding is the key.

One other point.. Books.. I have always been amazed by how difficult it is to
find good, easy to review and procur, technical books. There are few in print. So
a few points of advice. The easiest one is to get ahold of is the Reblitz book,
which is a good book, but is short and in the end only one book. Get it tho if
you dont have it. Secondly start collecting action regulating proceedures
available for just about every make of grand. Dealerships often enough have them
laying around or can order them. Third go to the conventions you can and take
care of every piece of literature you get as part of a class, or get just handed
to you. Lastly there are a few internet related sites, like Randi Potters. I have
no knowledge of the quality of his material, but plenty of folks over there do,
talk to them and get their recommendations about what books or videos to buy. And
as a suggestion to the PTG, It would be nice of you guys to include a page on
your site that lists every book relative to piano work available and to work at
developing this page as a resource center for new and old techs alike. Just my
opinion.

I doooo hope this clears up things a bit.

Richard Brekne

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