<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Ok... this of course changes the situation as you've moved up a bit in general on SW's and you've got this big bulbous bulge in the middle.  C-3 and C-2 are in the top part of the  low SW zone, then C-1 goes up all the way to top medium (+) and C0 is way the heck up there, and the curve finishes off just over the dividing line between the high and medium zones. Assuming this data  and the ratio you gave is correct, you have like two different pianos :)... the bass is set up with low SW's an a low ratio, and the rest of the piano set up with high SW's and a low ratio.  I would think that would be pretty noticible in both play and sound really. Again, I would definatly even out this situation before getting into any needling. I think it would be best for you to get a reliable measuring device like the Stanwood kit, or make something youself, as it's very important to get dependable data. And it would be fun to get a better sense of how this instrument is set up. Cheers RicB Stéphane Collin wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>Hi Bill, Richard. My apologize.  I gave you wrong measurements, as Ric suggested in his mail.  I agree this is all new to me, and I should maybe dig it much more before I dare jump into a thread like this.  But again, my interest was to know if action ratio issues could cause this recurrent problem in the Bechstein pianos I know : lack of linearity in dynamics.So if you are still interested, here are my corrected measures of SW (as I don't have the Stanwood tools yet, I did the SW measure holding the hammer shank on a blade just beneath the center pin, so the hammer shank is horizontal.  My previous measures were with the blade under the knuckle.  My fault.) note   DW  UW   SWC-3    60    40     9.6   (grams)C-2    60    39     9.9C-1    63    47     11.2C0     62    39     11.6C1     57    36      9.3C2     55    35      8.3C3     56    32      7.0  Please excuse my lack of experience on this practice. Best regards. Stéphane Collin.</blockquote>     -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A>  </html>