regulation extremes?

[Bob Hull]

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List, 

What would you say are the measurement parameters within which you should stay when adjusting hammer blow distance to acheive correct aftertouch?  Also, what key dip amounts would be too extreme both too little and too much?

Here is the specific situation I am working on:

I am regulating a Steinway M.  The beginning condition of the regulation was:

1.  the key dip was inconsistent, some keys were 3/8 and many were a little more, but less than .390;

 2. Hammer line quite uneven; overall seemed to lack power.

 3. Most of the hammers have drop at 3 - 4 mm. or so; 4. let-off was varied.  Wear on this 20 year old piano is very minimal.  

So, as prescribed in the Steinway manual, I set key dip (on samples) to .390 (the manual says .390 to .410 can be used;  I set h. blow dist. to 1 3/4.  Set let-off to about 3/32. Then, aftertouch seemed to be too much - .080 or .090 punchings added and still had let-off.  I decreased drop to 1/16 or 2 mm. Still, aftertouch too much, seems to me.  (More than .070)  I checked rep. lever ht. and jack position on these.

To try to decrease the aftertouch I lowered the sample hammers to 1 13/16 distance and even more, still - aftertouch too much!  Am I missing something?  A fine pianist is coming to do a program on this instrument soon and I want it to be "right". 

How much can the blow distance be increased until it is beyond the parameters of the intended design and creating other problems? Particularly for this piano.  And, was that 3/8 dip too little?  Why was it that way to begin with?  I'm pretty sure no one else has changed it since the piano was purchased.  Was the origianal dip maybe greater in a low-humidity situation in a New York winter when it was originally regulated?  Last weeks posts on aftertouch were appreciated.

Thanks.

Bob



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