A request from Chile

[Bdshull@AOL.COM]

Hi, Susan, 

I agree, hammer weight reduction certainly does make a touchweight 
difference.  I have been doing this for 10 years myself, but at the cost of 
tone.  If I can decide what hammer weight and touch weight I want at the 
outset, I have the most control of the results.  The Stanwood system allows 
me to do this.  If Fernando likes the sound of his piano now, he will 
probably be disappointed if the strikeweight is reduced.

Bill Shull, RPT

In a message dated 1/7/02 4:03:58 PM Pacific Standard Time, sckline@attbi.com 
writes:

<< At 06:05 PM 1/7/2002 -0300, you wrote:
 >When I first played it, I found its action
 >heavy. I asked in this list and received a lot of advise. With all this
 >knowledgement I contacted an authorized Yamaha technician in Panama. He came
 >to my house in september 2000 and made a lot of friction reduction work.
 >Actually, he was a very good technician. After that, I recognized a very big
 >change in the action weight. But not as much as I expected. Now I believe
 >that the action itself is heavier than actions I like. I've ever liked light
 >actions, since my hands are small. Furthermore, I'm not a professional
 >pianist, so I don't want to develop big muscles in my hands.
 
 
 Hello, Fernando
 
 It seems that the friction work has been done, and your main complaint is
 just the weight. Have you considered just reducing the hammer weight?
 It is possible to taper the whole hammer, so only the strike point is
 the full width. Also, you can sand the insides of the tails to take some
 wood off. If the touch is still too heavy, you can trim some of the felt
 off of the shoulders, leaving the tops of the hammer alone.
 
 I did this on a Kawai grand (along with friction reduction) and found
 the touch lightened a lot. The pianist seems happy with the results.
 
 If the up-weight is high enough that the keys will return well even
 with lighter hammers, maybe you could get what you wish this way. Of
 course, if you went too far you'd have to replace the hammers.
 
 Susan Kline
  >>