Sarah, I don't disagree at all that pianists can feel this stuff. And if you assume hammer speed is 1.75"/10mm = 4.45 rather than a typical SWR of ~6 the leads become much more significant. But I think it's too easy to look at a key that weighs 100-150g and a hammer that weighs 10g and assume the key must have much more inertia. One must also take into account the leverage/relative motion. The standard argument seems to be: if the SW and/or SWR is too high then we have to add more lead to the keys, and adding more lead increases the inertia rendering the action too heavy. I would argue that if the SW and/or SWR is too high, then the inertia is already too high and the game is already lost - the lead is a much smaller factor than usually assumed. Let the tomatoes fly. -Mark ------------ So, how to explain Ric's example that the favorite action of his students has a SWR of 6.2 and is 'heavy in a good way'. How high is too high? Phil Ford
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