[pianotech] Regulation

[Ron Nossaman]

>> From: Denise Rachel <pp-ff at verizon.net>
>> The replacement plastic is about twice as thick as the original ivory,  
>> and no planing was done.  I noticed instantly that the buttons are not  
>> even with each other, the white keys being lower at the front of the  
>> button.  So this is what I see:  the white key does not go all the way  
>> down, no matter how many punching I remove.  

The overall height (bottom to top) of the sharps should be 
pretty close to 0.5" more than the naturals. With the height 
of the naturals increased by the thicker keytop, that has 
changed. In operation, the natural extends out over and past 
the front rail punchings of the sharps, and just clear them at 
full dip. If the natural is made thicker, the key level height 
must be made lower, and the natural then can't go to full dip 
because it hits the sharp's front punchings before it gets 
there. There is nothing you can do to the rest of the action 
to make this work. Strip the keytops off, plane the keys down, 
and replace the keytops with new to make the naturals 0.5" 
thinner (shorter) than the sharps, and then work out the 
regulation.
Ron N