Touchweight Metrology Question

[Bill Ballard]

At 8:01 AM -0700 5/18/02, David Love wrote:
>McMorrow may have pushed the envelope in the other direction with respect to
>hammer weight, but the idea is not totally without merit.

McMorrow is not the only one whose main suggestion to action set-up 
problems is to remove large amounts of weight from the hammers. He 
just may have been the only to specify starting off with lead-free 
keys. Wally Brooks, nowadays is teaching that in an action whose 
parts have been properly chosen, any touchweight difficulty can be 
cleared up be stock removal on the hammers. (That's HWs not SWs, as 
he doesn't believe in SWs.) I've used the Wally option twice, getting 
him to prehang Abel hammers on Abel shanks, but first grinding 
material off the hammers to match the HW of the old hammers. This in 
situations where the original KR would not support the increased 
weight of new hammers (OEM NY Steinway in one case) and where the 
budget wouldn't allow for more extensive work. I got nice new hammers 
with lots of felt on them, but weighing little more than the original 
bantam weight ones. A year later, I'm still wondering what they would 
have sounded like with. (And no, I've never been convinced of extra 
advantage of extra SW, based simply on samples weighted up with 
solder wire wrapped temporarily around the shank.)

>It never hurt
>Horowitz.

But it certainly would have hurt any other pianist trying to make 
music one his piano. He was the only one who could play his pianos; 
under anyone else's hands they were ugly and out-of-control.

I agree with Jon on what's called for by this situation. Do the work 
using obvious means of changing the touchweight, ie. reducing the SWs 
and Friction. There's obvious work to be done in both these areas, 
and compared to the cost of other more comprehensive approaches 
involving new shanks, rebalancing the keyboard, or even changing the 
cap line, it'll fit into the budget. And get you within the ball park 
that most of the musicians will notice.

I'd also like to point of the conundrum handed to us by this whole 
business, that even with a smooth SW curve, there are enough 
variables active in the system, the we do have to face the choice 
between an even FW line (inertial resistance) or an even BW line 
(even gravitational resistance). David Stanwood, with his years of 
observation and experience, choses even inertial resistence.

But let's put this in perspective. We're barely talking a few grams 
disagreement here. Let me blindfold you, tape the end of your index 
finger (so as to dull your tactile sense), and then balance a 1 or 2 
grams wafer on top of that. Can you tell me when it is that the extra 
weight hits the end of your finger.




Bill Ballard RPT
New Hampshire Chapter PTG

"First you pays your money and then you takes your choice."
	Pogo.