Hi Tim I agree very much with the thinking that the sound the shank contributes is very much more important then most seem to give it credit for. I don't sort that way, but I end up do checking for shanks that have a sound contribution that is just plane unacceptable. In any given set there are always two or three I have to chuck. Nearly always most important in the top two octaves. Comparing a SSW weigh off to the frequencies would be interesting. I would think by and large there should be a correspondance.... with perhaps a few rouge shanks. Might be worth a do ! :) Cheers RicB Ric, I have been following this thread also, but I'm not ready the buy into using shanks to even the SW. I find your second paragraph to be more down the line of thought I use. The piano is supposed to be a percussion instrument. Percussionists are very particular about their sticks and mallets. I approach the shank as a drum stick. Each shank makes its own pitch when tapped. It is hard to hear for some, but they differ. I sequence the shanks from lowest pitch to highest pitch in the treble. Once the underlying "noise" from the shank is sequenced then I weigh off the hammers to create a smooth SW from hammer to hammer. I don't end up with the problems others talk about with the strike line. I have never checked to see if there is a correlation between the shank weight and the pitch. I know there are faults to this approach, but I see faults to the other approaches. Who among us is faultless? Also, since I rebuild all my pianos with the Wapin Piano Bridge I don't have problems with the hammerline being "funkified". Tim Coates
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC