Interesting sequel to D.Stanwood's remarks that the Balwin action was heavy. Comments appended below appeared on the piano newsgroup.... Stephen Birkett (Fortepianos) Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos Waterloo, Ontario, Canada tel: 519-885-2228 fax: 519-763-4686 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments from a pianist on Baldwin piano: >>>Well, recently I had the chance to go visit a friend who *happened* to have a Baldwin grand piano. >>>Anyway, I obviously pounced on the opportunity to play on a grand piano. As I started playing, I realized that the key action was *very* heavy... I've played on concert-size grands and stuff, and I don't recall the actions ever being this heavy.. I mean, it was so heavy, I couldn't play through a short piece (lots of single-note movements, and less chords) without tiring quite a bit. >>>I tried to like, play a very loud chord, and I couldn't... It just felt like the keys had this immense friction, and it took LOTS of power to make the hammer go. This feeling sort of made me wonder.. Most of the time, one associates "heavy" key action due to the length of the thing that lifts the hammer, etc... but are there ones that are made heavy due to friction by design? The keys uniformly felt "stiff". It was very difficult to play this piano. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever played on a piano with the keys tiring me out like that. (and I've played pretty big grand pianos too). Usually, when I "upgraded" the piano size, although the keys may feel heavier, I found it easier to play because it was easier to control the dynamics with the larger piano. I guess a better explanation would be, moving the key itself was pretty resistant-less, but you can feel the hammer part teetering at the other end of the key.. But this one... it almost felt like the keys were the harder ones to press while the hammer was "free" and had very little momentum (did that make any sense?) >>>This piano was moved from Massachusetts to California about 3 years ago, I think... May be the humidity thing is causing this? (can a drier weather cause something like this? I would think the opposite.. things getting loose, happening) >>>Then again, I could have been completely out of shape, and also sitting too low on the bench and didn't get enough weight to bring out the sound... :( Isako
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