Touchweight/Benches/ Bedding

[Daleboy@AOL.COM]

Dear List,
    My first round of bench arrangements for doing action work/regulation was 
done on a bench with a VERY heavy, stationary top. I was taught to use shims 
to try to duplicate the contours of the keybed. This often left me with the 
problems stated in earlier Touchweight posts....ie; action settings that were 
different in the piano than I had rendered on the bench.
    In doing more work with Steinways I found it necessary to design a bench 
with a top that was somewhat flexible and could be shimmed from underneath in 
order to duplicate the contours found on a given S&S. This gave me a greater 
degree of accuracy from the bench. (I also made it capable of concave 
settings....for other bed shapes) Anchoring the action duplicating the 
cheekblock function became necessary at that point.
    Of course accuracy improved as well when my attention to bedding the 
action more closely was honed.
    Any others with bench design comments?
Regards,
Dale Whitehead, RPT