[pianotech] Adjustable Repetition Spring

Ryan Sowers tunerryan at gmail.com
Wed Jun 23 01:16:40 MDT 2010


Awesome post Don! I can see a whole Institute class on repetition springs!
Thanks for the detailed description - I feel like a little light bulb just
went on. Now if it will just keep going...

Ryan Sowers, RPT
PTG Institute Team - Las Vegas 2010
Success. Guaranteed.

On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 7:51 PM, Don Mannino <donmannino at ca.rr.com> wrote:

> John,
>
> I thought I would pull this out of the previous thread, as it's a different
> topic.
>
> There are other issues with the adjustable screw for the "butterfly" style
> repetition springs.  Not issues that make them bad or unusable, but they do
> affect the feel and the performance of the action.
>
> In the original system, the repetition spring normally slides out the
> groove
> on the repetition lever.  This changes the point of contact of the spring
> on
> the lever, moving away from the lever center and towards the knuckle, while
> gradually increasing the spring resistance.
>
> In the screw-adjustable system, the contact point of the spring on the
> lever
> remains the same, but the spring length becomes shorter as the spring is
> compressed.  This changes the rate at which the spring stiffness increases,
> and also does not "soften" the affect of the spring's stiffening by sliding
> the contact point closer to the knuckle.
>
> Finally, the spring force ratio between the repetition lever / knuckle and
> the jack is also affected.  This is of less consequence than the rate of
> spring tension increase, but has an impact on the overall force which the
> spring applies to the capstan during repetition.
>
> The end result of all this is that the touch is affected in a small way.  I
> installed 3 sets of these wippens in the 80s when they were first offered
> by
> Renner, and went back to the normal design because I didn't care for the
> touch, and felt that the repetition was not as good unless the springs were
> regulated strong enough to make the hammer rise quite fast. The hammer lift
> was then bothersome during soft playing at times, detectable by the player.
>
> So, for these reasons, many people (and piano companies) prefer to use the
> old "PITA" style of wippens, even though the new design is certainly much
> simpler to regulate.
>
> Don Mannino
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On
> Behalf
> Of John Delacour
> Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:58 AM
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] WNG Parts Question
>
>
> I met Bruce Clark in England a few weeks ago and had a long chat with
> him.  . . . . . . I was also critical of his decision to stick with the
> most
> primitive
> and PITA type of repetition spring, and the reason he gave me was
> that an adjusting screw would add weight.  Yeah, and a fat lot of
> weight it would add compared with the added convenience of an
> adjustment such as used by Ibach, Grotrian, Schimmel etc. for
> donkeys' years.
>
>
>
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