Hi David. And just for the record David Love... (are you listening ?) grin... I TOLD you David Stanwood and I disagree on some things. Make no mistake about it tho... I know Davids work and methods and he has all my respect. That said... I stand on my point here. David S.... You can not possibly mean to say that you take issue with the claim I make below. It is a matter of the simplest course that an action that regulates to a 10 mm dip, 46 mm blow, 1-2 mm let-off and good aftertouch can recieve an appropriate set of hammers for whatever existing strike weight ratio there is there. Such an action is per definition in the middle field to begin with. As far as Kent moving the capstan alone to get a 5.6 ratio... Again... if the capstan placement yields anything close to the above specs... then ok... but if those specs already exist for his 6.5 ratio (which seems unlikely I'll admit but just so) then the roughly 6-8 mm of move that will be needed will force a regulation that will require either a significantly shorter blow, deeper key dip, or more let-of distance to keep the same aftertouch. No way around it.... lowering the ratio will move the action in that direction. If you at least double check your capstan placement with the standard ratio as a guide to see in each case... what harm in that ? I know about Steinways relatively wide window of action regulation parameters. For my part. 10.5 mm and 44.5 blow is the extreme end of low ratios. I dont shoot for outpoints myself. Nor do I see it is necessary in like 95% of the cases I run into. Cheers RicB >Ric B writes: <snip> >if you can get a 10 mm dip, 46 mm blow, 1-2 mm let-off and good aftertouch >then an >appropriate set of hammers for the existing leverage should work at >least fairly well. <snip> Ric, I disagree with you. In my opinion Kent is on the right track moving the capstan line to get the ratio down to 5.6. So long as he can regulate the action there is every reason to take this course (reducing the ratio to 5.6 level) in combination with a normal weight hammer (TopMedium). The regulation will need a shorter blow and deeper dip. One can regulate dip as deep as 10.5mm dip and blow as short as 44.5mm blow and have a perfectly great feeling low ratio action... Don't take my word for it... Steinway specifications according to the Steinway Technical Guide 1992 Page 38 states "it should be noted that the key dip can vary within the suggested range of .390 inches and .420 inches for any Steinway piano" (9.9mm-10.7mm). Page 23 of the guide gives a blow of 1 3/4"/44.5mm for models S-B. David Stanwood
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