<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "> Good post. <div><br></div><div>My question is always "what feels good to the player?" The answer, in key travel, seems to be somewhere between 10 and 10.5mm. I'm here completely to serve the player...starting with me, and working outward. This is, for me, where real joy resides.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div>Yesterday I had the transcendental pleasure of hearing a stunning young jazz/Latin/world music artist, Otmaro Ruiz (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(47, 125, 23); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; ">www.<b>otmaroruiz</b>.com)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; "> play the remarkable <b>Steingraeber 232</b>, a new 7'7" piano that is just stunning, and that I have for sale at the <b>Atelier</b>. It's one of the most mysterious, deep, resonant, and precise instruments I've ever heard or felt. This man made it come alive in a way I can't express. He is a treasure. The people in the room, all four of us, were crying. A forever moment; cascades of effortless, brilliant, warm, emotional sound. Every note was heard in beautiful clarity and context. One of the many compelling reasons for me selling Steingraebers is their repeated idealization of my favorite action parameters one of which is a 10.2-10.3mm key travel with a fine, crisp notch, or aftertouch feel.</span></span></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(47, 125, 23); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; ">When Otmaro was done---he was running to the final graphic design session for his upcoming CD release---he stood up, bowed deeply to the piano, then to me. Thrilling.</span></span></div><div><div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>There's a huge cornucopia of piano work in the United States and the whole developed world...billions of people and endless trillions of dollars. The challenge is being good enough to literally blow people away with your work. Then, and ONLY then, the phone will never stop ringing.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Best,</div><div>David Andersen</div><div>P.S. I can find a whole hell of a lot to do to almost every working or older piano that takes all of 12 hours. Certainly the vast majority of even good pianos in this country are sold and installed right out of the box, with a tuning only. They ALL need setup. Really.</div><div>Fight the myth and bullshit. Fight the doubt. Bring the truth. All pianos are machines. All pianos need setup, then whole-system maintenance.</div><div>Forever.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Don't listen to me; listen to Willis Snyder legendary mentor, </div><div>teacher, tuner, technician, rebuilder, giver:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><b>"Always aim for the high end."</b></div><div><br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div> <br><div><div>On Feb 14, 2008, at 1:57 AM, Gregor _ wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; ">I see it the other way round. I never regulate aftertouch but first at all key height and key dip. For me, key dip is not negotiable in the meaning of having a window of 9.5 to 10.5 mm but of course for *all* keys the same. At least for the white keys. I accept small differences for the black keys.<br> <br>What do you mean by regulating aftertouch? How do you do that? For me, aftertouch is not a measure to regulate but the result of all the other regulating steps. If aftertouch is uneven, I correct it with slight adjustments of let-off, but never of white key dip (that is what I mean by *not negotiable*).<br> <br>Some other points of this whole discussion struck me: amount of time needed for regulation and removing hammer rest rail. Someone wrote about 8 to 12 hours. What the hell do you folks do in that time: chatting with the customer? :-) I feel 2 to 4 hours is more than enough time (4 if you do really much on key height and dip). Concerning hammer rest rail: I can´t remember ever having removed it for regulating. Why do you do that?<br> <br>Gregor<br> <br><br><br> <br><blockquote><hr>From: <a href="mailto:mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com">mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com</a><br>To: <a href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a><br>Subject: Re: basic regulating question<br>Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:06:45 -0500<br><br><div><font size="3">Have you regulated aftertouch? First make sure your lost motion is right, your blow distance is even, let-off is even and then regulate aftertouch.</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">I guess I don't really even think about all the individual steps to action regulation anymore. Maybe I should. But one thing I really never do is "regulate" key dip - I mean I do check dip on a number of keys to be sure I am about where I want it, but I don't check all keys to make sure dip is exactly the same. The pianist will sense an irregular aftertouch much more readily than a few thousandths of an inch difference in dip. And if blow is equal and lost motion is even and aftertouch is even, then dip is going to be quite even automatically.</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">But then again, I don't consider myself to be an action regulation expert!</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">Back to cuttin' & bendin' some Sitka and Sugar Maple!</font></div><div><font size="3"></font> </div><div><font size="3">Terry Farrell</font></div><blockquote dir="ltr" style="padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid; margin-right: 0px; "><div style="font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal arial; ">----- Original Message -----</div><div style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: rgb(228, 228, 228); font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal arial; background-position: initial initial; "><b>From:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a title="KeyKat88@aol.com" href="mailto:KeyKat88@aol.com">KeyKat88@aol.com</a></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal arial; "><b>To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a title="pianotech@ptg.org" href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal arial; "><b>Sent:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Wednesday, February 13, 2008 12:37 PM</div><div style="font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal arial; "><b>Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>basic regulating question</div><div><br></div><div>Greetings,</div><div> </div><div> This may seem like a dumb question but after I level the keys and insure even key dip in an upright, why dont all the jacks have the same distance between the jack tip and the hammer butt after I depress the key and hold it there? Are my capstans uneven? Maybe its been too long a time since I learned this, and having only done about 4 regulations, maybe I am not remembering something.</div><div> </div><div>Julia</div><div>Reading PA</div><br><br><br><div><font style="font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal ARIAL, SAN-SERIF; color: black; "><hr>The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a title="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" href="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" target="_blank">AOL Music takes you there.</a></font></div></blockquote></blockquote><br><hr>Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://clk.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/" target="_new">MSN Messenger</a></span></blockquote></div><br></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>