lesser of touch weight evils...

[Ric Brekne]

Hi Jonathan.

I would have no problem deciding to change the knuckle dimensions or 
positioning if it fit a particular touchweight design. The overall ratio 
is a part of deciding that. And I certainly wouldnt have a problem with 
aligning knuckles on a set of shanks so that they are all resonably in 
the same position. The knuckle position affects the overall ratio very 
much, so even small inconsistencies are worth ones attention.

As both David Love and I mentioned, given the limited amount of 
information about the action up to now, there is no real point in 
speculating about doing any particular one thing.  Even familiarness 
with the model and time period does not help beyond being a reference. 
Especially as in this case... someone has done an action job of one sort 
or another.

I have run into many a fine playing action with reasonably high 
mass/inertia levels. If an action is well balanced and finely regulated, 
it will not play like a truck.

Cheers
RicB


Jonathan Finger writes:

What about the overall action ratio?  How will changing the knuckle
affect this?

I realize the church wants a "good" piano with a "good" action, but what
do the performers want it to feel like?  It's probably worthwhile to
have this information to help you head in the right direction.
The balance weight is very high at > 40g, so you might want to look at
removing some mass/inertia, which gets rid of the truck feeling,
especially at pianissimo.  As previously mentioned, you might want to
try a lighter hammer and less lead before moving knuckles around.