As one who routinely redesigns actions I'm not sure I would agree that key lead doesn't play a role in inertial feel of the downstroke. While I can't provide the math I can say that I have on several occasions taken actions that were balanced but where the action geometry had left them with excessive key leading. With a simple move of the capstan the removal of lead, rebalancing the action back to the same balance weight the action "feels" considerably different, less "inertial" as it were. That being said, I can say that inertial feel seems to be also related to knuckle hanging/hammer weight. The longer the knuckle to center distance, the less the inertial feel all other things being equal (slight complications to get all other things exactly equal, I realize). In other words, given the same strike weight, a longer knuckle hanging will require a slightly greater balance weight to have the same feel as a shorter knuckle hanging. I say this having had to use 18 mm knuckles on several occasions and discovering that I need to push up the balance weight by 2 or 3 grams to get the same feel as my more standard setting of 37 grams BW. While this is only anecdotal it would seem to me that the inertial component is influenced by both the hammer weight/knuckle position and the amount of lead in the keys. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Norm Barrett Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 8:20 PM To: Pianotech List Subject: Re: Low Inertia Jim, I am not heavily into redesigning actions or even a great pianist for that matter but your post was very interesting. The question that comes to my mind is have you had the opportunity to play the Horowitz Steinway piano? If so does that piano have the feel you would like? My impression playing that piano was that you could breathe on those keys and they would play and respond wonderfully. Norm Barrett jimialeggio5 at comcast.net wrote: > List, > > >> ... the excess lead wouldn't be in the keys in the >> first place unless the hammer weight is too heavy for the >> action ratio. I don't think key lead has a lot to do with down >> stroke inertial feel. >> >> My take, >> Ron N >> >
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