Key Weight

[Blaine Hebert]

Dear Dave,

Being somewhat new to the list and lacking time to dig through the
archives I don't know how often this has been discussed:

A US nickel happens to weigh exactly 5 grams.  In a case where you need
to know static touch weight a simple stack of nickels will tell you
within 5 grams or less.

Its also less intimidating to customers (perhaps a disadvantage).

Blaine Hebert

Piannaman@aol.com wrote:List,

There have been many, many posts about touch-weight, key leading, etc.
in the last few days.
Some of it I get, and some of it, well, let's just say it eludes me.  It
is sinking in
gradually.

I have a job that may require a real-world application of some of the
theoretical situations
that have been posted.  I will probably be flamed for not looking in the
archives, the Journal,
or other resources, but--covered up asbestos(sorry...:-) I know
how--here goes:

I have a friend who plays piano at a restaurant.  It's a new Henry F.
Miller--actually a Pearl
River, I believe--petite grand(she called it a "Harry Potter, or
something" when I asked her to
describe it to me).  Sue complained about the heaviness of the touch,
which surprised me until
she asked me to sit in for a tune.  I wasn't able to get the gram
weights out at dinner hour
last night, but I'd be willing to wager that it's up around 75-80 grams
touch weight.  Playing
it is like weightlifting.

It is a rental piano, and the restaurant owner doesn't want to spend
much money on getting it
to work any better.  I'd like to help my friend out, though, and
experiment a bit in the
process.  I haven't been able to get in to assess the cause of the
heaviness, but it does not
feel like friction.  I am going to tune it and give it a minor
regulation within a couple of
weeks, at which time I'll have more info.

Has anybody worked on one of these?  Any suggestions for lightening the
action without major
surgery would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave Stahl