Hi guys I'm going to take a slightly different take on this thread. Right off I am going to advise against this idea. Not just because of what Ed and Dave point out, but because it requires a few other regulation moments to be changed as well... all of which ends up equalizing a substantially non standard regulation. One which any critical pianist is going to react against on one level or another from the get go. One example is what happens to damper travel and hence where you need to set the damper stop rail. Setting damper lift to let-off means at roughly 8/10s key blow... which means you are going to be just barely lifting the dampers off the strings. If you dont drop the stop rail to match then on hard blows you are going to feel this really nasty after bump as the dampers hop up to their maximum height and drop. Nobody likes that feel. If you DO regulate the stop rail down then you have to inhibit pedal travel as well... quite a bit actually. You are setting up some pretty hefty non standard operating parameters and leaving yourself open to all kinds of criticism... both from discerning pianists and from other techs who follow you up. And, because your primary motivation for this is to lighten up touch.... you really are choosing the wrong tool for the job. There are several of ways of making quick adjustments to touch weight if you want.... some of them much quicker and too the point. Some of them are quite reversable as well. Touchweight <<weight>> both in dynamic and static senses is not about damper timing IMHO. Damper timing is a subject matter off its own and should be kept within usual operating parameters. Heres a good quick and dirty trick for lightening up the touch. Sometimes it can give rather dramatic results. Take a few strips of gumpaper (for shimming flanges). Place one strip thick behind all the balance rail pins (touching them) under the cloth and paper punchings. 0.2-0.3 mm thick will do ya. This effectivly lowers the ratio of the action... particularilly at the beginning of the key stroke where its most valuable in getting things started. It doesnt really change the overall distance ratio noticably as by the time the key is 3/4 the way through its fulcrum has moved forward again to the front half of the key pins diameter as usual. IMHO touchweight is per'se a ratio/weight issue. Standard action regulation parameters and reasonable friction levels are givens and should not be tampered with... not very much in any case. One final point. I dont need to repeat, but I will... always start touch weight reduction efforts with addressing friction issues. Cheers RicB
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