Touchweight

[James Ellis]

David (Stanwood),

I believe you quoted me out of context.  For the benefit of the other
readers on the list, let me put it bluntly.  If you DON'T know what you are
doing, stay with the original parts, as best you can.  If you DO know what
you are doing, good luck.  You are on your own.

I saw a case where a technician moved all the capstans, and got the action
into a state where it was virtually impossible to regulate properly.  The
problem all along was new hammers that were much too heavy.  It was not a
case where the appropriate hammers were not avaliable.  They were.  There
was nothing wrong with the original action geometry.  All it needed was new
hammers of the right size and weight.

An entirely different case is a customer who cannot be satisfied.  I few
years ago, I did a complete action rebuilding for a man.  The before and
after difference was like night and day.  The man admitted that he could
"rip through" passages that he could not begin to play before, but he was
still not quite satisfied.  I did everything I could think of the satisfy
him, but nothing was good enough.  I finally told him that if he ever found
a piano that he really liked, to let me know; I would see it, and then I
could figure out what it was that he wanted.  He has tried pianos all over
the eastern half of the US, but so far, nothing is quite to his liking, and
he still has the same piano.

Jim Ellis