Aftertouch Question

[Brian Trout]

Hi Terry,

You're asking some pretty tough questions.

Just a thought or two... they're only thoughts, so don't take them too
seriously...

Is there any particular reason why you like the letoff so close?  I have
heard of setting it that close, but most of the time, I prefer to set it
somewhere between 1/8" and 1/16", 3/32 I like.  I've seen too many times
where the seasons changed and had them all blocking for me to trust setting
them that close.

Your drop sounds fine.  1/16 is pretty standard, although true drop settings
are not really a function of a particular dimension as much as a matter of
timing.  I always did have a hard time "feeling" it though.

You haven't mentioned the repetition springs.  If they're a little on the
tight side, you will have a harder time getting the hammers to check,
especially on a soft blow.  With the letoff / drop up so close to the
string, it wouldn't take much of a little extra kick to get the hammer back
up to the string.

One of the problems that we have with the grand action when we try to play
very, very softly, is that lots of times, on a very, very soft blow, we
aren't really pressing the key all the way down.  I'm guilty of it.  No
doubt others are too.  An incomplete down stroke won't usually get the jack
out from underneath of the knuckle and that hammer sort of bobbles back and
forth between the string and where the jack is sitting ( I said it wrong,
but I think you'll get my drift).

10 thousandths for aftertouch sounds a little scant to me.  50 thousandths
sounds a little heavy, but not unreasonable.  I kind of like the 35 to 40
range myself, but this is one of those things where nobody's ever wrong
(within limits).  Different strokes for different folks.

I haven't worked on the Bostons to the level you are talking about, so I
don't know much about their idiosyncrasies.  I'm guessing you already looked
at things like whether the jack is clearing the knuckle, and by how much.

Regulation is one of those things where there's a sort of a window where
everything will work.  You can change the letoff, the keydip, and the hammer
blow all over the place, and come up with quite a lot of different
variations that will all be different, and still all work.  Unfortunately,
there are usually trade-offs.

There are others who are probably much better at regulation than me that
(hopefully) will chime in.

Good luck Terry.

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net