A request from Chile

[Fernando Rosas]

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Terry and list:

First of all, thank you for your time and dedication. But please try to be
in my shoes for a while. I'm only a home piano player who needs a qualified
technician to satisfy his needs. I feel insecure about doing things on my
piano by myself. Imagine that you must fix your car and all you have is
e-mail contact with your mechanic. Would you feel comfortable? Obviously in
case you are a common person regarding cars, I believe you don't.

I spent US$ 14.000 on that instrument and I'm able to spent a few thousands
more in order to get what I want and feel good playing it. If I reach the
goal of having the touchweight I want, I would be happy spending my money.
I'm not reach, I receive a salary at a firm and the expense is not little,
but starting by my own, having the possibility of doing something wrong,
really turns me off. I feel very insecure about it. And believe me, local
technicians are not professionals, here we don't have schools for
technicians. I really don't trust them.

So what I need is a qualified technician here. In the meantime, we can share
information and measurements, but finally I don't see that I will get to the
solution alone. I have read the Piano Book and learned about actions by
myself because I'm interested on it, but I'm far away form being a
technician. This little knowledgement allows me to take some measurements,
anyway. I've taken them under my own responsibility but following good
indications. I share them with you as an attached Excel spreadsheet.

Please understand me.

Sincerely,

Fernando

-----Mensaje original-----
De: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]En nombre de
Farrell
Enviado el: Jueves, 10 de Enero de 2002 11:23
Para: pianotech@ptg.org
Asunto: Re: A request from Chile


Fernando from Chile mentioned that some Yamaha guy had already addressed
friction in the action. I would suggest that a second opinion might always
be worthwhile. Not every tech does everything properly. Someone else
mentioned key pin/bushing friction. I have found this to often be a major
source of friction.

Fernando, you seem to be very aware of at least elementary concepts of the
action. Have you done a friction analysis? DownWeight - UpWeight = Friction?
If you have a decent set of weights (perhaps you could even borrow one from
someone in your area - any sort of lab should have them - a school,
university, dental lab, etc. - any place that does basic chemistry work - or
even make your own if you can get access to a scale +/- 0.1 gram) you could
evaluate the friction component for yourself. Its pretty easy to do. Me, or
about 87 others more qualified than me would be happy to walk you through
it.

I think it is very important to get an absolute handle on friction -
especially because the Yamaha actions tend to be so very uniform in their
manufacture. It lessens the likelihood that there are significant geometry
problems with the action.

Proper application of the Stanwood stuff will solve geometry troubles and
weight troubles. It will also give you wonderfully consistent touchweight
across the keyboard from his hammer weighting and keyweighting methods. You
can also largely dial in the touchweight you want.

BUT. If your action does not have geometry troubles, or if your keys do not
have too much lead in them, or if your hammers are not too heavy (none of
which are common in Yamaha actions (?right?)), the Stanwood stuff will have
little effect on your action - except to even things out.

I highly recommend that you satisfy yourself that friction is not a problem
with your action. Can you do this yourself (all you need to do is measure
how much weight is required to push the key down and up)? Can you find a
local tech that can do this? If you can find the weights, I am happy to walk
you through the procedures.

If friction is still a problem, knuckle lubrication, center pin lubrication,
repinning, key easing, etc. is cheap, easy, and would save you a lot of
hassle trying to ship actions to the US, or a tech down to Chile!

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin E. Ramsey" <ramsey@extremezone.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 8:42 AM
Subject: Re: A request from Chile


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Newton Hunt" <nhunt@optonline.net>
> >
> > The point is that the gentleman from Chile is not happy with his action,
> > it is too heavy for him.  He is otherwise content with the piano.
> > Changing the touch weight to his requirement is not that difficult and
> > if it makes him happy who is there to say him nay?
> >
> > Newton Hunt
> > New Jersey, USA
> >
>
>     My thoughts on the matter are that, yes, a whole lot can be done with
> the C1.  A really good regulation is first, coupled with actions to reduce
> the friction where present would probably do the trick. Then, if he wants
to
> learn more by experimenting with the piano, he could learn more about
action
> geometry and key weighting. Sounds like a great opportunity for growth.
>
> Kevin E. Ramsey
> ramsey@extremezone.com
>

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