Key Height

Z! Reinhardt diskladame@provide.net
Sun, 5 May 2002 08:51:49 -0400


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How DOES one go about teaching how to establish proper key height in an =
upright?  I've heard discussions about parameters as determined by case =
parts, balance pin height, and so on, that doesn't really home in on the =
optimum key height.

Recently I came to a fairly new delivery where the customer complained =
that she couldn't get sufficient repetition.  Two other technicians =
before me had tinkered with the action enough to get sufficient =
aftertouch, but the piano played with all of the grace of a heavy truck. =
 Both technicians had confessed to the customer that they were not =
pianists, and had done as much as they could according to the =
manufacturer specs.

Now I'm hardly a pianist myself, but my first sense was that the keys =
were sitting too low.  OK, raised the key-height, and regulated the =
action accordingly, including adjusting the key depth.  Got a nice =
aftertouch equation and turned the customer loose on playing it.  She =
reported that the action now flies.

What have I done?  Both technicians and the dealer all want to know.  I =
told them what I could, but realized that I had no real way of =
explaining how to determine what the optimum key height should be for =
any particular upright piano.  The original key height was well within =
the parameters mentioned above when I first came to the piano, but I =
knew it could be greatly improved ......

Any ideas out there?  Thanks!
Z! Reinhardt  RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net

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