Great topic and ideas. That is what the Japanese are like. It is in their blood that they are so particular in measurements. We have to accept their ideas, especially when they are training us. I haven't been to Yamaha in Hamamatsu however I completed the week long Australian course in 2004. Here in OZ, Yamaha have given us Technician numbers, and technicians have undergone training for these YT numbers. The instructor here was very strict on all regulation dimensions. I will always remember "key height, get it right". Also the use of the key dip block. Technicians who have not completed the course laugh at the details Yamaha want. It is Yamaha's way, and we were being trained by them. I trained at Kawai in Hamamatsu and they have a different way of measuring key height etc. It is their way, and to say "oh I do it my way" is not a way of impressing these technicians. Key dip is performed slightly different than Yamaha. Another experience is Schimmel. I find their key dip block the easiest to use. They also have an aftertouch test which I thought was great. The different ideas mentioned of changing aftertouch is all correct providing they are small changes, so it is the technicians prerogative to use whatever technique he wants. Just remember to respect the company representatives ideas. We have to learn to "save face" as well. Regards Brian Wilson OZ -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Richard Brekne Sent: Sunday, 1 March 2009 5:35 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Fwd: Erwins key dip gauge Ah... Now I see what you were getting at. Haven't run into exactly this, tho at Hamamatsu they DID make a big point of measuring key height in this fashion. On the C2's we had I think it was 63 mm from keybed to underside of the key covering. Dip however was checked with a 10 mm (or so) dip block with the front of the block flush with the front of the top of the key covering. That puts is a couple mm out in front of the key front. I cant imagine running through 88 keys with one of those metal mm measuring sticks checking dip this way tho ! But it DOES remind me of my Japanese student colleagues and their measuring sticks.... and how greatful I was that I'd gone through L. Edwards aftertouch seminars and had such excellent fly by the seat of your pants toutalage from the likes of André and a couple others along the way. Whilst the Japanese kids were using eons of time attempting to measure to the nth degree of accuracy using their various devices of precision... I let my eyeballs, touch, and knowledge of some basic action relationships whip me through the regulation part of our routines.... which ended up yielding as good or better scores then the others in our classes, and had alllll kinds of time left over to work on the voicing and tuning aspects of their training. This was great for me as I got so very much good instruction about voicing issues whilst there because I actually had the time on my hands to work through and get feedback from the instructors. Stock Yamaha hammers for smaller grands are a bit different to work with then some of these wonderful new high quality sets we can get now... but they do serve as a good learning set.... at least under that kind of supervision. Cheers RicB Ok, Since nobody solved the mystery question of where or how does one measure the dip/key travel... At red School house in 1976 we were instructed to measure the total key dip/travel from the under side of the key cover with a metric ruler.. It's a great visual reference point. Later, I discovered for myself that I didn't like 10mm & preferred 10.5 instead When using my gauge the measurement of .390 which again, is measured at slightly in front of the pin will yield a ruler reading result at the front of the key of 10.5mm. But I no longer have to get bi-focal's & headlamps to try to read the little tiny numbers on the ruler. It's a gauge that is a magnifying glass not a microscope but its pretty dang close. Dale No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.4/1976 - Release Date: 02/27/09 13:27:00
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