Adjusting wippen assist springs

[Charles E. Faulk]

Hi Phil,

I just finished a rebuild with so-called "turbo" springs. The main thing
to shoot for is touch weight which is graduated from bass to treble.

First reduce the spring tension so that the hammer falls back positively
on the wippen. Some springs are so strong that the hammer will rise and
stay up after checking.

Rough regulate the action, and then reduce the spring tension further to
your desired up and down weights. If your experience is like mine, you'll
find yourself bending the springs so much that they hardly support the
nylon cords they hook into.

There's a lengthy article on wippen support springs on the RennerUSA web
page by Chris Robinson. You might want to read it. He even suggest
removing key weights and letting the springs determine the touch weight.

Charles Faulk
Manhattan, KS 
On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 10:48:33 -0800 (GMT-08:00) Phillip Ford
<fordpiano@earthlink.net> writes:
> To those of you who use wippens with assist springs,
> 
> 1.  Do you adjust them so that they are giving the same assist on 
> every key?  In other words so that  WW (wippen weight) is the same 
> for every key?  Or do you adjust them so that the assist is tapering 
> from more in the bass to less (or none) in the treble?
> 
> 2.  In my opinion, actions with strong spring assist don't feel 
> 'normal'.  What do you think is the limit of spring assist at which 
> the action might still have a normal feel?
> 
> 3.  How you measure the amount of assist that you're getting?
> 
> Phil Ford
> 
> 
> 
> Phillip Ford
> Piano Service and Restoration
> San Francisco, CA
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> 
> 

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