<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: [CAUT] Black on Black... (Jack alignment)</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> On 8/9/07 4:07 PM, "Barbara Richmond" <piano57@insightbb.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>Well, this thread took an interesting turn while I was away from home.   Fred, tell me about moving those jacks on a well-regulated/lubed piano.  Is that "all" you did?  I mean, you couldn't just move 'em back and be done. I've never tried it--you had to go through everything again (right?).  I would be interested in knowing what changes to aftertouch you might have had to make as a result of it.  Of course, I could go experiment on my piano...but it's easier to ask.  :) Thanks, Barbara Richmond, RPT </BLOCKQUOTE> Hi Barbara,     Actually, advancing jack alignment doesn’t affect aftertouch. It does affect simultaneity of drop/jack tender contact a bit. Why doesn’t it affect aftertouch? Well, though the tender will contact the regulating button earlier, it will still get the jack to the point of letoff at exactly the same point in key travel, and exactly the same relative to the string. So you can actually nudge it (the jack line) back or forward a bit without doing anything else if you want to, and not be caught by the regulation police.     Moving all the jacks less than or maybe up to 1 mm will have a very minor affect on that letoff/jack simultaneous touch, but I don’t think it is enough to really feel in isolation. You can fool with all three - letoff, drop and alignment – to come up with an effect, of more or less obvious feel of the letoff part of key travel. Less drop and alignment forward makes for less obvious feel. So does increasing letoff a tad and leaving the others the same. Increasing drop and/or decreasing letoff means more positive feel, but with decreasing letoff you decrease aftertouch, which partly negates the positive feel thing (more aftertouch also means a more “positive feel).     It’s kind of a balancing act, but when you are in a pretty sweet spot, you can make minor adjustments without really redoing everything. Does that answer your question, or just make it more confusing? Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico </BODY> </HTML>