We hear all kinds of things like this... taken from the perspective of the technician not thinking about the actions function from perspective of the pianist. In fact... just about any description of function we give for this, and many / most of the regulation moments we deal with have rather undefined meanings from that perspective. I dont really see much more or less validity to the "bring the hammer up from check" description then the "pushing the key down" one.... as long as one understands all along that the idea here is that the hammer and rep lever are being pushed in opposite directions from the rest of the action below in order to facilitate a fast repetition. In my experience... just about any attempt at describing something has plenty of potential for ambiguity. People spend far more time talking past each other then they are aware... it only comes to surface when one discovers (or thinks one discovers) a point of disagreement. Clarification.... well I suppose it helps to put as many ways of describing a thing on the table as one can... and consider those given by others up against ones own thinking... but it seems to me that real clarification comes in the end by experience, and things never do really get perfectly clear :) Cheers RicB Paul, I thought it was necessary to clarify this. I have run into too many experienced technicians who apparently do not realize that this hammer "jump" that we induce during regulation is not something that is expected to happen during the normal functioning of the piano and say things like "the function of the repetition spring is to bring the hammer up from check" and the like. I have actually heard that said by a veteran technician during a chapter meeting - who was very surprised to hear me contradict him. He figured it out, eventually... So I like to clarify that point whenever I see a potential for ambiguity - especially when inexperienced technicians are present... Israel Stein
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC