Drop (was Journal Articles)

[Mark Cramer]

Thanks Fred,

if I may continue on the subject of drop for a moment, from experience, does
the drop setting vary with climate as let-off does?

Or, are the visible disparities (between let-off and drop distance)
generally due to:

1.) initial setting error (as Fred demonstrates)

2.) the seasonal movement of let-off in relationship to a (typically stable)
drop setting.

On lesser used instruments, I've allowed myself the lazy habit of setting
drop a little wide (confession is apparently good for the soul) so that
let-off settings could "float" to the wide side safely over summer.

Good idea, or misguided?

Synchronicity:

At Steinway, we were shown a different (to me anyhow) approach to
synchronizing let-off and drop:

With the action reversed, we adjusted the "jack-position screw" (rather than
the drop screw), until let-off and drop contacts were sync'd and you could
feel that solid "bump."

It works quite nicely, however, one astute colleague suggests that depending
"where" the jack (alignment) ended up, increased friction might offset any
benefits gained by this manner of synchronization.

Any thoughts, s.v.p?

Mark Cramer,
Brandon University







> Can anyone shed light on this for me, otherwise I carry on happily as
> above.

Hi Mark,
	I've seen that quite a bit myself. My guess is that, as drop must be done
out of the action cavity, they didn't match the keydip very well. And
regulated drop to where the hammer rose after aftertouch (which became
excess due to increased keydip - due to bench not matching keybed). Similar
sort of thing happens often with check. Anyway, it's as good a guess as
any. I hate the feel - spongy letoff due to dropscrew contacting before
letoff button.
	Hyper springs? Well, who knows what has happened to center friction since
whoever regulated it last. But I suppose your theory could be correct. Some
people may think they need more spring than necessary, and then crank down
the drop screw to avoid double strikes. Not a good thing.
Regards,
Fred



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