Too often students are instructed that technique is force and not finesse. Can you check the touch weight on his piano to get an idea of what he expects? A 5 gram increase from your present weight would be my target, heavier but not too heavy. 10 g absolute maximum. If the whippens are spring assist, reduce the spring tension or disconnect. Otherwise the least invasive and easiest to reverse are either shank clips or fishing weights pressed around the back check wire (haven't tried this one). A 1 g clip on the shank at the hammer will raise the touch weight between 5 to 7 g depending on your action ratio and can be incrementally moved forwards on the shank in the treble to produce less of a tonal affect and less weight. If the treble shanks are narrow, then you will need to crimp the clips in order for them to grip the shanks. A 5 g weight wrapped around the back check wire will raise the touch weight about 5 g since is would be a 1:1 ratio. The next option would be to remove a front lead. Survey the entire action and remove the lead which best achieves your target Balance Weight. This is where digital scale is helpful. 1 gram FW = 1 gram BW. If there are not leads you will have to add lead to the rear of the key. A good test would be to install some clips and ask if that adds enough weight. If not you will need to remove lead from the front. It's a shame to alter something that works so well to satisfy someone's preconceived notions. -- Regards, Jon Page
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