Hi all, >From what I've observed, the main cause of this seems to be the leverage ratio between the jack leg and fly; short leg, long fly. You need a pretty strong jack spring on that short moment arm to get the fly back under the butt between keystrokes. This makes for a very quick action, but it increases the resistance and affects the feel at letoff. New piano students, particularly, seem to have trouble with this. They tend to stop at the letoff resistance instead of stroking through it. Occasionally, I have a customer that just can't make peace with this and I have to compromise the regulation somewhat. I will generally lower the letoff rails a bit to widen letoff to about 1/4". I make sure the capstan adjustment is good, and set the backchecks a little closer than I normally would. This will usually get me, the piano, and the pianist(s) back into service for the next couple of years. By then, everyone has gotten used to the feel and I can usually get the regulation back to where it belongs with no trouble. In a school situation, perhaps a little teflon powder on the butt leather would lessen the drag and improve the situation. Might help, might not - hope so. Ron Nossaman
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