<< Horowitz's hammer blow distance was reported to be 1.5"...but they had to harden the hammers to make up for lost power...not everyone can handle a piano like that. Horowitz could. You will still hear double striking on Horowitz' recordings, even with the shorter blow distance. >> Greetings, I was able to examine the Horowitz piano at the factory, in detail, before it was "restored". The hammer blow was not particularly off spec, and the hammers being worn so much that there was no way to get much tonal range out of the thing. The most "unfactory" thing about that action was that the let-off and drop were virtually at the string, itself and the dampers were very, very late. There was very little aftertouch on this piano, as well. Downweight was 45 grams at middle C, due, in a large part, to the small hammers on there. It was a loud piano, but not very powerful. Regards, Ed Foote RPT http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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