<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Action Ratio and Dip and Blow and Etc.</title></head><body> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">Action Ratio:  5.7</font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">FW: 16.1g  (0.54 of Stanwood's maximum FW of 30.0g for note #40)</font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">KR: 5.2 DW: 50g UW: 32g BW: 41g SW: 9.1g F: 9.0g</font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">Knuckle-Core distance:  17 mm  Action Spread:  115 mm</font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000"><br></font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">It appears all will regulate very nicely.</font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">I didn't measure blow and dip accurately at the time of this post.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Then you don't know if it will regulate nicely.  Set your key height, dip and blow to</div> <div>see where the jack ends up at the end of the keystroke. Adjust your leverage to</div> <div>have the jack end up in close proximity to the knuckle.</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">Couple questions though. Action ratio is in the "normal" ballpark, although perhaps not optimal for this action?</font></blockquote> <div><br> I didn't know there was an optimal ratio for a given action. The goal is to get it low</div> <div>and still be able to regulate the action<br> </div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">FW is way low for key #40, however, I have something in the range of a "good" amount of lead - see picture below:</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Low lead content means efficient action, that's a good thing.<br> </div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">DW is nice - right where one would want it. UW is high - but is that bad? Does the key ever return too fast for a pianist? But why is it so high? I know that you don't get something for no price. Doesn't that suggest that the action is suffering somewhere else?</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>UW is high because Friction is low, that's a good thing = fast repetition<br> </div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">BW is high. So? As another person asked: What does BW mean to or do to a pianist? What does it matter? What does it mean (I know the definition) from a practical standpoint? David Love - what makes you say that you like a 37g BW - is it because 37g BW "feels good" to you - or that you can't "feel" BW, but rather when you have a BW of 37 the other parameters usually are near their optimum?</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>A comfortable range for BW is 38 to 42 with 38 on the light side and 42 on the heavy.</div> <div>S&S spec is around 35 for concert pianos (50/20). I usually shoot for 36 to 38</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">It seems to me I am getting closer to where I want to be. Good leading (key inertia), hammer weight and Down Weight. Seem like the only thing concerning me is my high Up Weight and Balance Weight. Are these a real concern? Why/how would the action perform better if I were able to get BW down to 37g (or there abouts) and reduce UW to 25g or so - all, or course, without changing  leading, SW and DW? Seems to me the only way to potentially do that would be changing the action ratio - but how - capstan, wip rail, knuckle?</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>If your current configuration (with key height, dip and blow set) causes the jack to be</div> <div>away from the knuckle then you have the option to move the stack back a few mm.</div> <div>This will reduce the travel of the jack and reduce BW (and F,  maybe 1 g). It will also</div> <div>bring the capstan/cushion closer to the Magic Line, yet probably still too far behind.</div> <div><br></div> <div>The more efficient you make the action, the more transparent it becomes to the pianist.</div> <div>A lower BW means less effort is needed to depress the keys.</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">And I still have the nagging question about key lead on this action: Why do I have such a very low FW, yet a "normal" amount of lead? This also has me scratching my head and worrying that something is horribly amiss elsewhere - again, the little bit I think I know about action balancing is that everything is a compromise - you don't get anything for free - the only way to pay Peter is to take from Paul.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Low lead means efficient action, don';t worry about it...be happy about it.</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" color="#000000">Man, when does it end?     :-0</font></blockquote> <div><br> Soon but it will start again with the next action.<br> </div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> <div><br> Regards,<br> <br> Jon Page</div> </body> </html>