Striking Point

[Christopher D. Purdy]

>My response:I am fairly certain that the old hammers are originals - they were
>extremely dry, worn, yellow. So, are you saying I should go ahead and set the
>new hammers according to the old hammers which I left on the ends of each
>section, even though the slight difference in the flange will mean that the
>hammers will be slightly higher (perhaps 1/64") than they would have been on
>the original flanges?
>

Jerry,

I guess my point was this, I don't set strike point where the ruler says
to, I do it where it sounds best.  Similar to the way Mr. Hunt suggested
you move a test hammer up and down the shank, if you leave the treble
keyblock out and move the action in and out very slightly you will find the
sweet spot.  Just don't set strike point on the bench according to some
book.  Go to where it is going to live.  After all the work you have done
you sure don't want to have to yank those nice hammers back off and start
over.

Try this, if you don't have the action pulled apart, put the stack back on
and slide it into the keybed.  Put your keyblocks in to locate the action
and then play whatever treble hammer you still have on the stack (C88?).
Now take out the treble keyblock and as you play that note move the action
back and forth very slightly.  You will hear that in one spot it sounds
better.  Now if you put the keyblock back in and the action does not move,
your already there.  If it does move, you can adjust your new strike point
to that good spot.   Some keyblocks have a little adjustment for this very
thing but that is for fine adjustment only.  It is much better to set the
strike correctly now than try to move the action later.  Then you can run
into problems with case parts.

As far as the flanges go, if they are going to be a problem for you, it
will be when you regulate the jack to the knuckle.  Too much of a change
either way may monkey with your aftertouch or jack escapement.  But that is
another can of worms.

chris

-Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T.   School of Music  Ohio University  Athens OH

-purdy@oak.cats.ohiou.edu   (614) 593-1656    fax# (740) 593-1429