basic regulating question

[David Andersen]

Good post.

My question is always "what feels good to the player?" The answer, in  
key travel, seems  to be somewhere between 10 and 10.5mm. I'm here  
completely to serve the player...starting with me, and working  
outward. This is, for me, where real joy resides.

Yesterday I had the transcendental pleasure of hearing a stunning  
young jazz/Latin/world music artist, Otmaro Ruiz (www.otmaroruiz.com)  
play the remarkable Steingraeber 232, a new 7'7" piano that is just  
stunning, and that I have for sale at the Atelier. It's one of the  
most mysterious, deep, resonant, and precise instruments I've ever  
heard or felt. This man made it come alive in a way I can't express.  
He is a treasure. The people in the room, all four of us, were  
crying. A forever moment; cascades of effortless, brilliant, warm,  
emotional sound. Every note was heard in beautiful clarity and  
context. One of the many compelling reasons for me selling  
Steingraebers is their repeated idealization of my favorite action  
parameters one of which is a 10.2-10.3mm key travel with a fine,  
crisp notch, or aftertouch feel.

When Otmaro was done---he was running to the final graphic design  
session for his upcoming CD release---he stood up, bowed deeply to  
the piano, then to me. Thrilling.

There's a huge cornucopia of piano work in the United States and the  
whole developed world...billions of people and endless trillions of  
dollars. The challenge is being good enough to literally blow people  
away with your work. Then, and ONLY then, the phone will never stop  
ringing.

Best,
David Andersen
P.S. I can find a whole hell of a lot to do to almost every working  
or older piano that takes all of 12 hours. Certainly the vast  
majority of even good pianos in this country are sold and installed  
right out of the box, with a tuning only. They ALL need setup. Really.
Fight the myth and bullshit. Fight the doubt. Bring the truth. All  
pianos are machines. All pianos need setup, then whole-system  
maintenance.
Forever.

Don't listen to me; listen to Willis Snyder legendary mentor,
teacher, tuner, technician, rebuilder, giver:

		"Always aim for the high end."




On Feb 14, 2008, at 1:57 AM, Gregor _ wrote:

> I see it the other way round. I never regulate aftertouch but first  
> at all key height and key dip. For me, key dip is not negotiable in  
> the meaning of having a window of 9.5 to 10.5 mm but of course for  
> *all* keys the same. At least for the white keys. I accept small  
> differences for the black keys.
>
> What do you mean by regulating aftertouch? How do you do that? For  
> me, aftertouch is not a measure to regulate but the result of all  
> the other regulating steps. If aftertouch is uneven, I correct it  
> with slight adjustments of let-off, but never of white key dip  
> (that is what I mean by *not negotiable*).
>
> Some other points of this whole discussion struck me: amount of  
> time needed for regulation and removing hammer rest rail. Someone  
> wrote about 8 to 12 hours. What the hell do you folks do in that  
> time: chatting with the customer? :-) I feel 2 to 4 hours is more  
> than enough time (4 if you do really much on key height and dip).  
> Concerning hammer rest rail: I can´t remember ever having removed  
> it for regulating. Why do you do that?
>
> Gregor
>
>
>
>
> From: mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: basic regulating question
> Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:06:45 -0500
>
> Have you regulated aftertouch? First make sure your lost motion is  
> right, your blow distance is even, let-off is even and then  
> regulate aftertouch.
>
> I guess I don't really even think about all the individual steps to  
> action regulation anymore. Maybe I should. But one thing I really  
> never do is "regulate" key dip - I mean I do check dip on a number  
> of keys to be sure I am about where I want it, but I don't check  
> all keys to make sure dip is exactly the same. The pianist will  
> sense an irregular aftertouch much more readily than a few  
> thousandths of an inch difference in dip. And if blow is equal and  
> lost motion is even and aftertouch is even, then dip is going to be  
> quite even automatically.
>
> But then again, I don't consider myself to be an action regulation  
> expert!
>
> Back to cuttin' & bendin' some Sitka and Sugar Maple!
>
> Terry Farrell
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: KeyKat88 at aol.com
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 12:37 PM
> Subject: basic regulating question
>
> Greetings,
>
>            This may seem like a dumb question but after I level the  
> keys and insure even key dip in an upright, why dont all the jacks  
> have the same distance between the jack tip and the hammer butt  
> after I depress the key and hold it there? Are my capstans uneven?  
> Maybe its been too long a time since I learned this, and having  
> only done about 4 regulations, maybe I am not remembering something.
>
> Julia
> Reading PA
>
>
>
> The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards.  
> AOL Music takes you there.
>
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