Steinway regulation

[Ron Nossaman]

>> let off distance is sacrosanct, and isn't to be used to split 
>
>In a word, yes.
>
>A little lower letoff and you loose power and control.  A little high and
>you risk blocking.  Letoff can be tapered, 3 mm in the bass and 1.5 in the
>treble and those can be reduced by .5 mm for one concert but varying letoff
>is one of the last things that should be done.


In general, I agree... but. While I typically approach regulation in a very
simple unimaginative normal boring manner, I'll try things from time to
time. Finishing up a Kimball grand rebuild last year, I did everything I
normally would with the regulation - no heroic efforts, just an honest
attempt to smooth everything out as nicely as I could. While I was walking
a hand up and down the keyboard in the final stages of the regulation,
feeling aftertouch, drop, crispness, uniformity, and all that, I was still
noticing some very minor irregularities. Now this wasn't a concert level
regulation, so I figured I had some room to play. I nudged letoff a tiny
bit, note by note, in the direction that felt more like what I wanted
(don't know how much, didn't measure, but it still looked to be well within
the range of safe and adequate). It made a difference in the uniformity of
feel, though the letoff didn't look any more or less erratic than before I
did that. A couple of friends played it before it went out, and both
commented that the action felt real friendly, uniform, and responsive -
especially at low dynamic levels. Very interesting, though I'm not sure
what it taught me just yet.

Now this isn't something I do all the time, in fact I only did it that once
out of curiosity, but I did think it was interesting in light of the fact
that everything I've ever heard about regulation says to set the letoff,
leave it alone, and work everything else around it. Maybe if I was to just
set it right in the first place...

 
Ron N