<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Hi Jim Jim Busby wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>Thanks Fred, I've been out of state for a week. Several excellent techs have told me that Steinway does it the way they do to "cover a flaw in the design", i.e. in order to get more power they hang a heavy hammer, and in order to compensate for the heavy hammers they have to reduce friction to make proper touchweight specs.</blockquote> Never mind what some techs say about manufacturers doing things wrong... I mean take it for edification, but realize that a great deal of such talk is simply (for various individual reasons). This idea of Steinways is a perfect example the way its coming out. There is nothing inherently wrong with using heavy hammers and their use in no way represents a flaw. It DOES present some problems that need to be addressed for an action to be playable. There will be some yings and some yangs...as there is with any solution. This particular way of dealing with heavy hammers is a new one to me... Hamburg shanks and preglued hammers come in  with 5 to 9 swings... or in their way of doing things... tapping the horizontally held shankk will see the flange stay level... if it rises there is too much friction, if it falls there is too little. My own preference is to insure 4 - 7 swings. This insures enough firmness and at the same time allows enough freedom of movement. I prefer to deal with hammer weight from a leverage standpoint. That being said.... if Steinway can insure enough firmness to the shank center/bushing with so little friction... then there is no real problem in doing so. <blockquote TYPE=CITE>  After spending the day with Eric I'm not totally a proponent of their way, but I'm definitely more open to it. I agree that if that's how they do it I should at least look into it...  </blockquote> Sounds reasonable to me. Tho like you, my initial reaction is .... "strange" :)   <blockquote TYPE=CITE>BTW, maybe my readings were not as accurate because of how fast I ran through everything. Just trying to get a feel for things there. But if I increased 5+ grams in the hammer flange doesn't that multiply for DW?</blockquote> Never figured it out. I suppose it depends on how you handle friction in any formula based thing.  Why not just do a couple "before and after" scenarios and see. <blockquote TYPE=CITE>  Jim   <a href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives"></a> </blockquote> Cheers RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A> <A HREF="http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html">http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html</A>  </html>