<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Joe, I don't know what's going on now, but when I worked at Steinway, every grand action was weighed off. <div><br></div><div>The person doing the job (I can't remember his name. Big old Irish fellow) got the action with a lead pattern for that model, then he proceeded to weigh and adjust each key. He would then drill and insert leads as needed. I also noticed that he rarely removed lead. If the key was to heavy or he didn't have a good location or size, he added weight to the front to counterbalance.</div><div><br></div><div><div apple-content-edited="true"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; 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: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div>Al -</div><div>High Point, NC</div><div><br></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br><div><div>On May 23, 2012, at 11:13 PM, Joseph Garrett wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>Paul said:<br>"If I were interested in studying key leading patterns in different pianos<br>by<br>taking pictures of certain keys, which keys would be the most<br>useful/representative? I find it easy to lay out all the Cs one below the<br>other, but this does not show the typical changes in numbers of leads<br>between sections, or where they occur. The difficulty I have found in<br>trying to capture the first and last key of each section is that photos of<br>black keys do not easily show the leads, which have been painted. Also, I'm<br>not sure comparing #26 sharp leading with #27 natural leading is the<br>best/most meaningful. Ideas? Does anything like this already exist<br>someplace?<br><br>Trying to learn about action ratios, inertia, etc. -- that is, from the<br>point of view of what's been done in the past, is common to certain makes,<br>models, periods of manufacture, etc. Thanks in advance for any suggestions."<br><br>Paul,<br>There are two ways that keys were leaded, imo. 1. a pattern was taken from<br>the prototype piano and was used on all of that model, regardless of the<br>considerations of friction, assembly line errors, different key material<br>masses and any other thing having to do with the actual function of a piano.<br>2. There have been a few factories that made the action correctly, in<br>regards to friction and action geometry, w/in the boundaries of mass<br>production, (albeit small quantities), and weighed off every set of keys<br>before the darn thing went in the crate.<br>I don't think any U.S. companies fell into #2.<G><br>Studying what they did, really is of no concequence and is, imo, a waste of<br>your valuable time. Better to take John Rhodes/Darrell Fandrich class on<br>inertia. They'll answer all of the questions rattling around in your<br>punkin'.<G><br>That's my take on that. <br>Joe<br><br>Joe Garrett, R.P.T.<br>Captain of the Tool Police<br>Squares R I<br><br><br></div></div><br></div></body></html>