Alot of good ideas and ways for producing some very refined work are being floated regarding shank radius weight and hammerweight which combine to produce strikeweight and the action's main contribution to overall tone. Frame bedding and key dip collision are also part of the equation. But getting back to variable strike points, which can be reduced or clarified (maybe the better term) by smoothing out the strikeweight whatever procedure you choose to follow, the process is different for the bass tenor break where we are not looking for a strike point than for the treble where we are looking for one or more. There is usually a gap at the bass tenor break in the hammer weight, as Jon has rightly pointed out, but I usually just smooth out the strikeweight with lead or sanding in that area and don't find the hammer appearance too radical. So I don't see the need for much change in the shank radius weight at that point other than for the elegance of numbers. In other words I don't understand the pratical tonal adavantage at that point. In fact it may cahnge the tone more to introduce a heavier shank than to alter the hammers. I don't have any hard data there but it is a possiblility. I pre-sort the shanks heavy to light bass to treble before I channel them and then again after channeling them. I too find that this reduces the quantity of the variation if not the relative variation. I do not make a spreadsheet until that point after the second sorting. I do not try and match up shank radius weights with hammer weights to produce particular strikeweights but I do smooth the strikeweights with leading and sanding after dry fitting. I allow a .1g margin for error. When sanding the biggest bang for the buck is on the sides of the hammer which includes both felt and molding and does not disturb the strikepoint. But having done my presortings of the shanks and thanks to the fairly uniform taper of our fine after market hammer manufacturers I find very little to do other than at the bass tenor break. I can compare this to the many actions I have rennovated using Stanwood priciples over the years prior to doing this sorting. I may be going over the shanks twice but I have much less work in the end. I am intrigued at the possibility of working shank tone into the equation and will be first looking for a correlation between pitch and weight. Thanks, Chris Solliday -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080218/14a4220b/attachment.html
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