Grand Touch

[Richard Brekne]

>
>
> Sorry, Paul and David - was thinking "blow distance"  - should have followed
> the thread better.  Kristinn was no doubt referring to strike distance -
>
> Bill Shull

Hmm... I think I have bumped upon a term I am not really familiar with. Strike
distance seems to refer to something I am not aware of. I read Kristiins post as
"the distance between the hammers and the strings with the hammer at rest". I
have heard this refered to as strike distance, and as blow distance. I would
appreciate hearing a bit about the difference between these two terms as David
uses them.

As far as this weight related to "hammer distance from string at rest" I have to
admit I got a little uncertain after my last post. I had seen a demonstration at
one of these seminars we all attend (this was some years ago) where a fellow put
a hammer on a scale such that the hammer flange was fixed but you could move the
height of this otherwise fixed point up and down. The tail of the hammer was on
the scale. As you moved the flange upwards the weight of the hammer decreased
slightly. This was explained by saying that the friction of the center pin acts
somewhat like a "holding" force, and everyone knows that holding a weight out at
45 degrees is easier then at 90 degrees.

It seemed to make sense, and I never really gave it much thought again until
this post came up and especially after my last post. So tonite I had to tune a
grand and decided to take a few measurements to be more sure.

What I found out was this. With the hammer at its normal resting position it
took 32 grams weight to slightly deflect the hammer (about 2mm movement)
Regulating the hammer rest position upwards 10 mm it took 33 grams to do the
same thing.  It took 54 grams to raise the hammer all the way to letoff in its
normal rest position, but only 38 grams when the hammer was raised to a rest
position of 10 mm above normal.

This would seem to say that with the hammer regulated at the higher position,
there is more inertia (perhaps friction ?) to overcome, but that being done the
hammer is indeed lighter.

Not sure how to interpret this.. but hey... live and learn eh ??

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