Grand touch

[Richard Brekne]

Hei Kristinn og takk for sist

Do yourself a favor on these Samick. First check downweight and upweight and note
down the figures. Then subtract the upweight from the downweight for each key and
divide by two. This will tell you how much friction there is in the action.
Samicks varie quiet a bit in this regard in my experience. The result of this
division should be around the neighborhood of 15 grams. A downweight of around 50
grams is pretty usual for a light touch. Do this friction figureing before you do
anything else or you could end up making things worse, or not really improving
the situation at all. Typical sources of friction problems are center pins,
knuckels, and keybushings. In some cases the angle the whippen sits on the
capstan can cause problems with friction as well.

With good friction levels there are several things you can do to improve the
actions speed, and give it a lighter touch. Samicks have whippen assist springs
and you can strengthen these with in reason. This will sometimes have dramatic
effects on touchweight. You should see that these are well regulated before doing
anything else. Otherwise you can regulate dampers so they lift on the "late" side
of standard tolerance, you can reduce hammer mass by shaping the tails (used to
be a good idea anyways as you could take the angle out of the tail at the same
time and get checks perpendicular to the keys, and you could remove the excess
checkering that tends to just rip the backcheck leather apart with time and use).
You can also file some of the felt off the hammers.

In addition I find that setting backcheck as high as you can get away with it,
and insuring a repetition spring strength on the "strong" side does wonders for
speed, and can contribute to the illusion of lightness of touch.

Richard Brekne
I.C.P.T.G. N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway



Kristinn Leifsson wrote:

> What about reducing the striking distance a little bit?
>
> Kristinn Leifsson
> Reykjavík, Iceland
>
> At 13:19 3.11.1999 -0500, you wrote:
> >The key (no pun intended) word is "feel".  A piano can "feel" heavy or light
> >depending on many factors including the size and acoustic properties of the
> >room, the tuning and voicing of the piano, the position of the lid,
> >condition of the hammers, the condition of the player's ears, and of course
> >the actual touch weight.  In my experience, so long as the touch weight is
> >within reason, one or more other factors can be more important to the
> >player's perception of light or heavy.
> >
> >Start by measuring the actual touch weight and friction.  If these measure
> >within acceptable parameters look at the other factors.  The room and its
> >configuration and voicing would be the first to check.
> >
> >If, after you have examined all possibilities, the owner still thinks the
> >touch is heavy, and assuming friction is not the culprit, then the easiest
> >way to reduce touch weight is to reduce the weight of the hammers.  Get out
> >the old Dremel tool and start sanding.
> >
> >Frank Weston
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Kristinn Leifsson <istuner@islandia.is>
> >To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
> >Date: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 10:03 AM
> >Subject: Grand touch
> >
> >
> >>
> >>
> >>I´m servicing a relatively new Samick grand that the owner would like to be
> >>a little lighter.
> >>
> >>I´m curious to know, what are your favourite methods in making a grand (or
> >>a vertical) feel lighter to play?
> >>
> >>
> >>Kristinn Leifsson
> >>Reykjavík, Iceland.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >