Stanwood Standards

[Bill Ballard]

At 11:21 PM +0200 4/9/03, Richard Brekne wrote:
>And while I most certainly define that to include a wider degree of 
>acceptable parameters then perhaps you do,  I have a hard time 
>imagining the configuration you give here. Quite an example.... high 
>strike weights causing a 12.7 mm key dip..... I wont even bother 
>thinking what kind of SW-ratio we were imagining here :)

Ric, the next time you call it a SW ratio I'm coming after you with a 
wet noodle. <g> Actually, I have no difficulty imagining it 
(outlandish as David later says it is). There are two ways to bring 
the BW down in such a high SW situation without messing up the FWs: 
counter-balance the weight not with lead but with rep helper springs, 
or push the Strike Balance Ratio (SBR) down low enough to carry that 
kind of weight  while keeping the BW and FWs in line. With the 
latter, there's only so high you can set the hammer line under the 
pinblock, and from there you have to head off towards a 1/2" dip (and 
maybe  beyond.)

As far out in right field as removing all keyleads and grinding away 
at the hammers until the DW is once again visible on the horizon, the 
left field solution. Both of these are logical extensions of a 
particluar priority, in the first, high SWs and the second zero FWs.

Actually David's designs (not the metrology) are based on logical 
extensions. Plot a set of SWs, see a jagged line and decide that, if 
SW is a significant function of the action's set-up,  an even and 
consistent set-up asks for that jagged line to be brought to a smooth 
curve. Same thing with FWs or BWs. Uneveness, challenging us to do 
something about it.

David Love is right: perfectly playable actions can be put together 
without such compelling obsessions. But just like any car salesman 
can make money during good times, anybody can get an action to work 
which has a reasonable key ratio and hammer weights. It wouldn't even 
require knowing that these aspect were working in your favor. It's 
there outliers (statistically) where the metrology really shines. 
Without it one is really in the dark.

The metrology really is a language, and sometimes I think that Ric, 
David and I here on the list are like three grizzled old farts on a 
park bench muttering away in a language which no one else knows or 
understands. But whenever someone else on this list says, "I leaded 
the keys for 50g DW, and the pianist now says its heavier", I wish 
there were more of us. DW. What's that? That plus UW are the two 
knobs on the front door. The good stuff is inside.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"I'll play it and tell you what it is later...."
     ...........Miles Davis
+++++++++++++++++++++