List, I'm working on a 41" console piano built by Heintzman in 1965 -- certainly no gem when it came into my hands. Laminated soundboard, compressed action. (I grew up with a "real" Heintzman built before 1920.) Since I see many such consoles of nediocre quality built during that era, I am experimenting to see what careful set-up and regulation will do for such an instrument. I have rebushed the front rail, adjusted flange friction (butts, wippens and jacks), dressed the butt "leathers" with a small sanding drum on a rototool, and lubricated everything using Prolube, TFL-50, Teflon micro-powder and a bit of CLP. Crescendo front rail punchings replaced the spongy "shoe insole" material that came from the factory. What a difference! Regulation is mostly done, some preliminary hammer shaping has been done, and the piano is much more responsive than it was. It's beginning to feel like a musical instrument. My question: As I begin to delve for the first time into the world of touchweight, what can I expect to find in terms of friction, and what should be my target for balance weight? The journal reprints and the archives have been very helpful, but most of the material is aiming at grand pianos. Some preliminary measurements suggest that I might find friction levels considerably lower than 12 grams, but I'm still getting the hang of deciding what kind of movement of the key tells me that I've found the downweight and the upweight. Or to put some things more directly: If I'm getting friction readings of 6 to 10 grams, with flange friction at 5 to 6 hammer swings, the jack falling under its own weight, and the wippen flange falling under the weight of a screw when tapped, is this normal, or is my measuring technique suspect? Floyd Gadd Manitoba Chapter
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