popsicle stick engineering

[RicB]

Hey again David.

We always end up being quite a bit more in agreement then otherwise.  I 
really rather think thats a testament to the basics of your methods.  I 
mean hey... its the most sensible way of balancing an action by far.... 
hands down.  And it allows quite a bit of degrees of freedom in matching 
hammer strike weights to pianos / piano-situations as part of that 
balancing and goes a long ways down the road in dealing with key inertia 
issues.  Touch just doenst get more even.. and  its every bit as 
cost/time effective as the old way IME.

As for what constitutes the lowest ratio either of us likes to accept as 
100 % USD Choice... :)... well  I suppose its cool that we differ a bit 
there. And, I agree of course that a 6.5 ratio is too high in general, 
and will not work well with top medium SW's.  You'd need lighter 
hammers... Ed's idea ! Even so... I'd look at lowering a 6.5 ratio for 
sure.  I'd just go about it a little differently.  I figure... as long 
as I'm going to move the capstans...  I want to make sure I 
significantly improve as many issues as possible.

btw... 4 years and 15 days ago to the day... you and I were walking 
around the hills of Bergen looking for an Anchor on my 50th birthday.  I 
said it then and I repeat it now...  I cant think of a finer way I could 
have spent that day !  And  we found the darn thing in the end to boot :)

Cheers
RicB


     >David S....  You can not possibly mean to say that you take issue with
     >the claim I make below.  It is a matter of the simplest course that an
     >action that regulates to a 10 mm dip, 46 mm blow, 1-2 mm let-off and
     >good aftertouch can recieve an appropriate set of hammers for whatever
     >existing strike weight ratio there is there.  Such an action is per
     >definition in the middle field to begin with.

    44.5mm blow as apposed to 46mm is my only disagreement with you Ric.
    The shorter blow with the lower ratio is usually needed to keep the dip
    to 10mm which is my own preference.  The big issue is that Kent's action
    will feel dynamically playable with a top medium strike weight were as
    a 6.5 ratio will take to much force to play with such a hammer weight.

     >As far as Kent moving the capstan alone to get a 5.6 ratio... 
    Again...
     >if the capstan placement yields anything close to the above specs...
     >then ok...

    I agree!

    Agreeably,


David S.