More off the wall stuff

[Bill Ballard]

At 8:46 PM -0800 1/17/03, David Love wrote:
>An interesting follow up to this.  As you recall the original action weighed
>at 42g BW and 49 - 50g DW, i.e. very low friction.  When I replaced the
>hammers and shanks, I rebalanced the weight at 38g BW.  With the new
>friction readings that gave about a 51g DW in the middle.  Changes to the FW
>pattern were minimal 1-3 grams on average still in the 85% range of maximum.

Sounds as though the new SWs were close to the old ones. If not, then 
the knuckle mounting distance stretched on the new shanks. I mean, a 
4g shift in BW, with "changes to the FW
pattern were minimal 1-3 grams on average still in the 85% range of maximum".

>Recall that she didn't want any real change in the touchweight.

I was curious about that term, who was supposed to define it, you or her?

>When she first sat down she said, "Oh, it seems a little lighter".  But after
>she played it for awhile, she said "Well, I'm not really sure if 
>it's heavier or
>lighter, but it feels like butter."  Real quantifiable stuff, eh.

She's feeling the friction, and it sounds as though you've got it 
well regulated.

>Anyway, that was a good thing.  Heavier or lighter, she felt that 
>she could feel
>the key all the way through the stroke.

As opposed to "fly-away hammers and keys"

>She was happy.  Confirms my current
>sentiment about default settings:  38 g balance weight with a friction range
>of 15 g in the bass to 10 g in the treble and FW's of about 85% of maximum
>makes for a really nice action.

That's a god profile, especially one to get the reputation of 
delivering reliably.

>For concert instruments, I prefer to go up
>to 40 g balance weight. The bit of adrenalin that performers get
>neutralizes that extra bit of weight and keeps the action from running away
>from them if they get too excited.

My old (classical) saxophone teacher told me about reaching for a 
slightly harder reed at concert time, than the one he'd prepared the 
music with. I personally think that there's a large group of pianists 
who don't wouldn't be slowed down by the difference between 38 and 42.

What I was remarking on was the choice you were giving us: friction 
or DW. DW is achieved with friction or BW (or both), and because of 
that would not be in an either/or trade-off with friction. I was 
wondering whether you were surveying people's comprehension of BW.

RickyB of course is nuts. <g>

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"I'll play it and tell you what it is later...."
     ...........Miles Davis
+++++++++++++++++++++