Hi Julia, Basically by doing this, you are using the weight of the dampers early, lifting them almost immediately as you press the key, and this gives a firm and pleasant feel to the touch. On my piano it took me about 10 minutes to do. I undid it and redid in in another 10 minutes regretting it. I am presently a classical pianist, and not a technician, but I enjoy very much learning whatever I can from piano technicians in order to keep my two grand pianos optimally tuned and in as good a mechanical shape as possible. I used the felt trick on a 1911 Bluthner 6 foot grand, which I have slowly managed to bring it in excellent condition. It¹s old action is so designed that it has no aftertouch. Initially I used this thin sheet of self adhesive felt ($ .99 at the arts an craft store) because I had noticed that the original felt pushing the dampers up, had been worn a little bit, and was very pleasantly surprised with the results. It is the piano I use to practice on, and prefer it to a wonderful C7 Yamaha that I also have, with a new action. One might wonder ³Does the touch of this old action feel like a weighted electronic piano?² The answer is not at all, because of all the other friction points that are involved, giving it the touch of a concert piano. Using these felts greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the piano. One should not forget that all the great pianists who passed on around 1955- (Rachmaninoff, Hoffman, Levine, etc.), played on this type of action. All the best Steve On 11/26/06 1:53 PM, "KeyKat88 at aol.com" <KeyKat88 at aol.com> wrote: > Greetings, > > I must admit, back in the days when I was not a piano tech, I took my > upright piano apart and taped nuts to the rear of all the key sticks. That > increased the weight. When I got home from tuning school I removed them, > because I learned that adjusting the spoons can accomplish a heavire touch.. > But now I am trying to find the time to adjust the spoons to make a heavier > touch. Your felt thing is a really good idea! It sort of does the same thing > a spoon adjustment does only it can be undone easier than readjusting all the > spoons. > > Julia > Reading, PA > > In a message dated 11/16/2006 4:59:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, > spapaste at comcast.net writes: >> 2) I elected instead to tape a piece of thin felt (from a sheet with >> adhesive backing costing .99/sheet in any crafts store), in the back of each >> key, on the damper lever key cushion, (at the point where it raises the >> dampers), in a way that the dampers are lifted almost immediately as one >> presses the key, thus giving a beautiful firm touch to the action, by using >> the weight of the dampers thus increasing the resistance and resulting in a >> heavier touch. >> >> >> Stephen Papastephanou -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20061126/d5c41bc5/attachment.html
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