Key weighting

[Jon Page]

Ted,
Jiffy key leads screwed to the rear of the key. Position trials at the ends
to desired touchweight, draw a line. Just for fun, use an equation to figure
the sharp key's lead placement: once you've established natural trials,
measure from the:
b/r hole to the screw hole  (call it)     a
b/r hole to front of key		   b
sharp, b/r hole to front of key	   c
a/b=x/c
solve for "x" and that will be the placement for the screw hole on the sharp.

Recenty done on a Baldwin console with favorable results.

Shoot for a DW of 50 bass (low 50's anyways) and a few gr lighter in the treb.

Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
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At 05:31 AM 11/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi List,
>  I received a call from a regular customer of mine who owns an Everett
>studio upright and wants me to add weights to the keys to make the touch
>firmer.  She has just switched to a new piano teacher who owns a grand and
>the touch is so much heavier than her piano.  Her piano teacher had weights
>added to her piano when she was young and in the learning phase.
>   I told her that it's possible that her teacher's piano has a heavier
>touch because it is out of regulation.  Anyhow, I stopped by the customer's
>place to do a touchweight measurement and sure enough, the touch on her
>piano was pretty light.  The downweight was 40 grams and the upweight was
>OK at 25 grams.  Now, I need to know if anyone has done this to an upright
>before and how should I go about giving her piano a heavier touch.  I feel
>that just attaching lead weights to the back of the key would make the
>piano uncontrollable,  much like a seesaw with a light person on one end
>and a heavy person on the other end.  I have tuned this customer's piano
>for the past 10 years and want to keep her.  Any suggestions will be
>greatly appreciated.
>
>Ted Simmons
>Merritt Island, FL
>
>
>