Drop (was Journal Articles)

[David M. Porritt]

Mark:

This begs the question of whether a solid "bump" is a good thing.  As a pianist (and I'm not much of a pianist) I've never liked to notice where let-off begins.  The less impediment to a smooth keystroke the better to me.  On some pianos I have left let-off a little generous and drop just a tad high to reduce the bump.  While ultra close let-off allows a pianist to play ppppp without the risk of a note's skipping, sometimes when playing that lightly the key doesn't complete the stroke because it stops at the "bump".  With just a little more generous let-off and drop coming ever so slightly later the smoother keystroke actually allows you to play even softer.

Or am I just kidding myself?

dave


__________________________________________
David M. Porritt, RPT
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275


----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: Mark Cramer <Cramer@BrandonU.CA>
To: College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org>
Received: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 09:31:59 -0500
Subject: RE: Drop (was Journal Articles)

>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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