Objective keydip measuring

[A440A@aol.com]

Greetings,
    This is really interesting, that there are so many ways of setting
actions.  
    I, for one, would not make the point of let-off inconsistant from note to
note. 
   Following a regulation class by Chris Robinson,  I changed my regulation
procedures to produce a consistant aftertouch by varying the keydip after
hammerline and let-off were set. ( I set the let-off in the piano, as close to
the maximum string excursion limits as possible).  
    This procedure caused comments from several of my regular customers, they
all noticed an increased evenness to the concert pianos and recording pianos
that they were familiar with here.  NOBODY noticed that the actual keydip was
varied by as much as .010" to do this. They just noticed that the action felt
more consistant.  ( I know that under rapid pianissimo playing, the front rail
felts are often not touched, as the keystroke is not carried all the way to
the bottom.  I have measured this).  This way of setting keydip also takes any
inconsistancy in keylevel out of the equation.  
    After some time,  it occured to me that the difference between keydips
could be minimized if the hammerblow was also brought into the average, so I
began to set up the keyframes with a .007" punching on the bottom of the
frontpins,  before any cardboard or felt was installed, afterwhich I set the
keydip at .380" by use of a weighted touchblock.  Then, during the final
setting of the keydip, if subtracting more than this .007" was required to get
the .050" aftertouch, I raised the hammer.  If the aftertouch required adding
more than the same, I raised the hammer.  
    This procedure produces a very slightly erratic looking hammer line, but
resulted in a very even sense of touch.  Unfortunately,  there are very few
artists that can tell this difference, and some of my competition took it upon
themselves to point to this as evidence of sloppy regulation on my part.     
Regards, 
Ed Foote