Pinning and Tone

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Jim and Alan

Of course this last bit from Richard Davenport is the << other >> way in
which power can be taken from play. Most of us are taught to check this
by holding a little downward pressure on hammers and forceing them
upwards with the key. That simulates a hard blow fairly well and any
dragging upwards by the tail on the check is to be avoided.

If you are really pushing your back check height in order to get as much
out of repetition as you can, then its easy enough to get a bit of tail
drag without really noticing it either in very hard play or in testing
as above. In anycase, any drag will affect power negatively, and should
be avoided.

You could be tempted to simply regulating backchecks so that they are
all just free of drag for a given downwards pressure on the hammer. But
that yeilds fairly uneven backcheck height, and that in turn yeilds an
uneven element to repetition. I think in practice... nearly every one
regulates such that on some notes there is just a very small amount of
drag on very heavy blows... which is probably Richard Davenports
observation.

I'd like to see his films as well. These days all those can be packed
down into fairly small Mpeg or AVI files and used in Powerpoint
presentations.... which can be burnt on CD or DVD disks... and with
todays net speeds put out for download on the net.... perhaps an idea
for some.... :)

Cheers

And thanks for the good info from R.Davenport Jim

RicB


> Jim Busby wrote:
> 
> I need to clarify that Richard Davenport says it engages slightly when
> the backcheck is close (high checking) on hard blows. As I understand
> it if it is regulated that close the tail may skim the surface on a
> hard blow because of shank flex. Could be. I’d like to see his
> presentation and those films.
> 
> .... and    
> Alan,
>  
> 
> According to Richard Davenport the backcheck does slightly involve the
> tail if you look at those high speed tapes of it. I’d like to see it,
> but he says that higher checking does result in less power as Richard
> said, and Ric. clarified for me.  As Ric said, more drop = slower rep,
> and higher checking = (slightly) less power. I agree.
> 
>  
>

-- 
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html