Key Leading revisited

[Mike and Jane Spalding]

Richard,

Sorry, must take exception to some of your statements, see below.

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Brekne <rbrekne@broadpark.no>
To: PTG <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 7:08 AM
Subject: Key Leading revisited


> Well here we are again Sophie my old girl...

You can call me Mike   :)

>
> Just got this in about a course at the Reno Convention... by
> Stannwood himself. I mentioned that I had done an experiment that
> showed a smoother up and down weight by concentrating more leads in
> the center and somebody who declared himself an ex-genuis type

Not necessarily ex- , I'm hopeful that whatever chops I had in my previous
life I have retained and can put to use in this new one...

> engineer...grin... said he repeated my experiment and could not
> duplicate the results... I of course re checked a few times and got
> the same results as I first did... but figured ahhhh drop it....
> grin... Anyways... from David Stannwoods course description this
> year..
>
> "We will feature a new demonstration with a piano key mounted on a
> metronome to show how more keyleads close to the balance rail take
> less force to move than less keyleads further
> out with a discussion of how key lead patterns may be designed to
> enhance action quality."
>
> Now I know force isnt the same as inertia... but all these are
> interelated when it comes to how the action behaves (in all
> respects) when you put a weight on the key.... In anycase...I still
> note that putting equivalant fw weights with a bit more mass towards
> the center invaribly gives me a smoother UW / DW reading.
>

So where in David's course description did he use the word "smoother"?

Incidentally, I was killing time this morning waiting for a $75 / Hr
mechanic to finish changin the oil in my car, reading through the journal
reprint book on actions and touchweight.  Most of these articles are more
than 10 years old.  Several authors, including Alan Vincent, Susan Graham,
and Bill Spurlock took the position that key leads should be place as close
to the balance point as possible, to minimize the inertia.  Explanations
very thorough, with amuzing examples (sumo wrestlers on a teeter-totter,
etc.).  For "smoothness", though, they pointed to friction.  Bill's article
had an interesting nugget:  look for fuzz or hairs of felt contacting the
neighbor - hammers, knuckles, key ends - said it's surprising how much
friction it can add.  Test for it during weighing by moving the neighboring
keys.

See you in Reno.