raising damper lift to lighten touch

[Jerry Cohen]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Dave,

 

You raise some interesting questions.

 

I have a question. If you only wanted to delay the damper lift, why didn't
you adjust the spoons? Then there would have been no change in damper
regulation (twist etc.), capstans or sostenuto. If the result was not good,
you could bend them back. Just wondering.

 

Setting the lift at 2/3 hammer travel seems a bit far. One possible
negative. The piano might sound a little dry (less resonant), because the
damper is stopping the string sooner as the key is released. I have heard
this complaint from pianists when the damper timing is set late. Perhaps a
Seiler has so much resonance that this is no problem.

 

There are so many discussions on this list about weight, but the issue of
checking damper timing rarely comes up. Yet it has a big influence on the
apparent weight. I'm glad to hear you are trying this. Have others tried the
piano since your adjustments? How to they like the results? Keep us
informed.

 

Jerry Cohen, RPT

New Jersey Chapter

 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Piannaman@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:30 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: raising damper lift to lighten touch

 

Far flung friends and fellow techs,

 

One nice thing about doing occasional store work is that there are lots of
guinea pigs to try things out on before I do it in a customer's home.  

 

Yesterday the manager of one of my store accounts said he had a customer who
loved the Seiler 186, but the touch was a tad too heavy for her tastes.  I
suggested the least invasive procedure I could think of--raising the point
of damper lift.  He said okay.

 

I regulated the dampers by loosening all the wire block screws and lowering
the wires, using the tray(raised to the proper point) as a guide.  I brought
the lift point to where the hammer was about 2/3 of the way to the string.
To the touch, it felt like lift was beginning just before letoff.

 

I fine regulated them by adjusting the capstans.  (still doesn't look quite
as good as a Seiler factory job, but it's not bad at all).

 

Also needing regulation were:

 

The pedal rod

The trap-stop capstan(what DO you call that, anyway?)

The damper upstop rail

The sostenuto rod

 

In the end, the touch weight was around 5 grams lighter, possibly a tad
more.  It felt quite good, and all of the dampers had plenty of clearance.

 

Would regulating spoons or capstans be far more difficult or offer other
pitfalls?

 

This was my first experience with  this particular job, and it came out
pretty well, but I'd certainly appreciate any suggestions from those of you
who have more experience doing this.

 

Thanks,

 

Dave (back on the list after being glued to the Tour de France)

Stahl

 


---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/87/97/d8/d6/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--