First thing I would do, btw, is correct the damper timing and see if that doesn't do the trick. Then I would check the tension in the damper springs to be sure that it's not tensioned too high-you will be able to feel if it is by alternating playing with the damper pedal engaged and not engaged. If it's too high adjust accordingly. If it's still too heavy you can do it the quick way which is to just go through and pop out a lead that's positioned in roughly the same place on each key. A 14 gram lead in halfway between the balance point and the capstan will reduce the touch weight be 7 grams. If you want to get very fancy then first measure and adjust the hammer return spring tension with a gram gauge. Push the hammers to a vertical position with the gram gauge and adjust the spring tension until they are all uniform. Then measure up and down weight on each key, calculate the BW and using a platform scale (Stanwood type) remove the corresponding amount of lead from the key for the change in BW that you want. Since the keys are backleaded you'll have to either set some weight on the front of key on the platform so it doesn't fall backwards, zero the scale and then go from there or set the keys on the platform backwards (easier). If you don't want to hassle with the spring tension and measuring the BW but want to be more precise on the removal of lead then simply put the keys on the scale so that you can remove a uniform amount of lead to change the back weight (in this case). David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Cole Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 12:32 AM To: Pianotech Subject: [pianotech] Seiler 53" (135 cm) Upright 1997 I tuned a wonderful-sounding but poorly-regulated Seiler today. The owner and 8-year-old daughter both report the touch is too heavy. When I tried the piano, it was hard to play pp passages without notes dropping out here and there and, yes, it felt heavy. There is a card on one side showing the regulation specs. Notes 1 - 34 have 56g (DW) and 35 - 88 have 54g. I found that most of the keys had four leads behind the balance rail (half leads, two on each side). The few keys I checked, with the wippen raised, the lead weights seemed to be balancing the front weight of each key (see two photos below showing both sides of C4). All of the dampers are timed very early (dampers move after a couple of mm hammer travel). My question is, what would be the most technicianly way of reducing touchweight? Anything I need to know about this particular piano? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101022/00ce9ce8/attachment.htm>
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