<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Mar 2, 2011, at 3:35 PM, Dale Erwin wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; "> I guess the limiting factor in every age is how heavy the action is and will it give you carpal tunnel.</span></span></blockquote></div><div><br></div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The driving factor is hammer mass. <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>There is a historical progression: Larger hammer mass to drive thicker strings and a heavier belly. This requires a lower ratio, to make it playable by humans. This leads to lower velocity of the hammer, less acceleration, less variation in strength of blow. This means that the hammers have to be denser or stiffer, to produce enough of a tone gradient to be a true piano sound. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The ratio has continually decreased as hammer weight has increased, with quite a bit of that happening in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Both hammer mass and touch weight have increased over the centuries, together with dip (another aspect of the ratio becoming smaller). And, of course, we still work on pianos that are 50-150 years old, many of which were built with lighter hammers and the associated higher ratio and lesser density.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>All of this can be confusing, especially when you consider that it didn't all happen smoothly and evenly. Steinway, for example, increased hammer weight and tried to compensate mostly with key leads, with obvious and continuing negative results. They also resisted changing the relatively soft hammer density, so the voicers ended up inventing and developing the lacquering process (that is my interpretation, not official history).</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In any case, I think it is best to try to see the whole picture, and not look at one particular aspect and call it good or bad without giving it a context. I don't think any one factor, be it hammer density, hammer mass, ratio, or touch weight, should be looked at in isolation, with some parameter called "good." We need to balance factors, always. Yes, I know I am being annoying and picky. I am agreeing with Del in much of this, so at least I have good company. <G><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Regards,</div><div>Fred Sturm</div><div><a href="mailto:fssturm@unm.edu">fssturm@unm.edu</a></div><div>"A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." Plutarch</div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>