RicB writes: >what, whats significant and whats not, a lot of it contested >emphatically, and not much of any of it can really be shown to be known >or adequately quantified one way or the other. You can't argue the feelings of pianists and there are plenty who emphatically like actions with properly applied support springs. Pianists feelings are an adequate quantity. >But just so we are clear... many if not most assist spring actions these >days are driving SW levels that are high enough to cause your wrists and >fingers plenty of problems..... low key inertia or not. Most of the actions I've see that cause injury have ratios above 6.0 and SW in the low high or even top medium zone and too much key lead. As one who has designed hundreds of assist spring actions I can say that most have SW in the low to mid high zone which is not at all extreme with ratios in the mid 5's. As for actions with upper high zone SW, so long as the ratio is close to 5.0 and the geometry is efficient, there is no pain or injury there.... >they are not being used conciously to cover all ends as it were. >Basically assist springs are still being used to overdrive the action. >At least thats how it appears to me. >Cheers >RicB I think it might be better said that most technicians think they can fix actions which are already being overdriven by using wippen support springs. It doesn't work that easily. You have to address SW and Ratio. Any action can be made to feel great by balancing hammer weight, ratio, Front Weight, geometry, and friction. Springs are should be viewed as extras for getting more performance out of the action. I've certainly noticed plenty of comments from pianist who notice that assist spring actions repeat more surely than non spring actions. As a rule of thumb an assist spring action should play nicely even with the springs disengaged otherwise the setup isn't right. David Stanwood
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