Bill, Dave Love, Ron... anyone else who might have insights and thoughts... I've been re-reading Hohfs article of a couple years back and am wondering about the problem he sketches relating to the need for the string plane to be paralell with the key bed. One of the points made is that "most actions in common use today are designed to swing the hammershank up to the point where it is parallel to the keybed" and a statement following about the decrease in action efficiency when the shank is not paralell to the key bed. In addition we want the hammer to strike the strings at 90 degrees. So first... if you have to choose the lesser of two evils... what would you say is the right choice to make ? Keeping the hammer shank centerline parallel to the keybed at strike distance or hitting the strings at 90 degrees ? Course you can alter the rake of the hammer to some degree, or even the bore distance... but those present other give and takes. Also... the Jist of Hohfs seires seems really to arrive at the optimal string height for any given action, with key elevation, hammer bore, center spread, and hammershank length as fixed values... holy grails as it were. Another question I am wondering about.... If the center spread is to be veiwed as a fixed value, and bore distance is fixed..doesnt that sort of dictate the height of the hammer shank and whippen centers over the keybed ? Thanks for your thoughts RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
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