<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16705" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In addition to the half punching you can install
the new WNG key capstans. They are several grams lighter than the standard brass
key capstans. WNG back checks are also lighter but that would void your back
check warranty.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would be curious how the half punching would
reveal itself on the Stanwood measurements.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gene</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=bobtmusic@yahoo.com href="mailto:bobtmusic@yahoo.com">Bob Tate</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, October 04, 2008 10:03
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> lowering inertia without voiding
warranty?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top>HI all.<BR>this is my 1st post here. I haven't been
around the Guild for 30 years--I think it's time to come back :
).I<BR><BR>this question in particular, concerns my own piano, an
Estonia 190.<BR><BR>It's a sweet piano. I went through many, before
finding this one. It's really an exceptional piano, except when playing
at speed, it's a tank. --I'm working on a piece that has arpeggiated
16ths, with the quarter at 144. That's darn fast. And with an
injured wrist, even harder.<BR><BR>So, how to overcome the high
inertia/heavy touchweight?<BR><BR>I'm working with 2 highly regarded
techs, who do David Standwood's method--but we are at somewhat of a loss
as to what is the best approach or if there even is one.<BR><BR>The FW
is high, except for the top treble, where it goes to low or
lower.<BR>The up/dwn weight of the keys are pretty close, but need
to be smoothed--especially the up--it's enough to sometimes
actually knock my <SPAN>fi</SPAN>ngers off the returning
keys.<BR><BR>The AR, shows the inertia. I'm (we) are looking
at >6.2. I would like it around 5.5, and lower the FW into the low to
medium range.<BR><BR>We've figured out that the key geometry is in
trouble. But to move the capstan or knuckle, will void the piano's
warranty.<BR><BR>The action is German Renner, with German Renner Blues.
<BR><BR>The supposedly "correct" solution is to lower the hammer weight.
However, since the hammers are already light, I'm certain that'd kill
the voice of the piano--and Renner says that's not good to do to their
hammers. Besides, we don't think we can take off enough on the
hammers to get the AR down to the 5.5 goal.<BR><BR>The back of the
wippens have an extra bit of wood with holes for a pin. It looks like
wippen helper springs would go there. We thought that might give us a
good start at lowering the inertia--I tell you (144x4), that's 576
notes/min tires your out very quickly at high inertia. <BR><BR>I called
Renner USA & while they have the springs, they have nothing else and
no instructions as to what else is needed to install them. I guess
it's a case of Renner USA vs Renner Germany. And Tokiwa doesn't
seem to make anything that will work.<BR><BR>So I can't find any helper
spr.ings to even try. I understand they are a real pain to adjust,
but since it's my piano, I can spend the time to get the
right.<BR><BR>Bob at Pianotek was helpful. He suggest adding 1/2
punching to the key at the balance rail. My puncings are scarlet (.055).
Not having any, I used several layers of maksing tape to get up to about
.033, in the shape of a regular puncing, cut in two, and stuck them on
--facing the right way-- at the balance pin hole of the key.<BR><BR>This
indeed did lighten the feel of the piano, but it caused it to be
sluggish. Plus it raised the key height 1/16 and the back end, nearly
3/8" (which makes since with the leverage as we calculated is above that
6.2 to 1.<BR><BR>To get the hammers back down to an acceptable blow
distance, I lowered the capstan, which raised the keys fronts even more.
Now I'm in dip trouble.<BR><BR>So that's where it stands .<BR><BR>It
comes back to lightening the hammers? (but they are already light and
would loose too much felt + probably wind up with the thinnest tails
there could ever be). The keys have lots of lead in them--but the DW is
about 50-52. <BR><BR>Am I stuck to not being able to play at speed--no
Chopin or Schubert. What else can we try? --no wippen helpers, at
least I can't find any. And changing the location of the capstan,
knuckle, will kill the warranty.<BR><BR>I'll be pulling off the masking
tape today, to get the dip and hammer blow back to where it should
be. I'm back to ground zero.<BR><BR>Bob, Provo
UT<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>