<!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 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Keith,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2><<I go with a four gram flange = friction target. Is there any advantage to having the friction of the flange = change with the weight of the hammer? Maybe in the bass it should be a little = tighter, more stress. >></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2>If you gauge friction by the number = of swings of the hammer, then the lower/larger hammers would automatically  end = up with tighter pinning.  Since this is the traditional approach to hammer flange friction (which apparently has worked well), my guess = would be that flange friction *should* be graduated from bottom to top, as you suggest.  Using a spring gauge, you would probably need to graduate = between the two ends of the keyboard, so that the top has approximately half the = friction of the bottom.  (Correct???)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2>Peace,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2>Sarah</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Georgia size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>