Heavy Hammers / High Ratio / Ric

[Bill Ballard]

At 1:32 PM -0700 9/24/03, David Love wrote:
>My view is, to what benefit?  <snip>Since I've never found any tonal benefit
>to very heavy hammers, I wonder why this would be desirable.

I'd guess Ric is being theoretical here. Imagine that the pianist's 
continuum of key velocity (how fast he can push the parts) can be 
divided into twenty increments, and if the hammer velocity is the 
product of the key velocity and the action ratio, then with a higher 
action ratio, there will be a greater spread between the slowest and 
fastest hammer velocity and presumably a greater range of whatever 
tone the hammer will produce (either quantity/volume, or 
quality/color). Hence a greater range of expression for the pianist's 
aforementioned key velocity.

Keep the matter hypothetical and you don't have to worry about action 
saturation, but it still begs David's question: for a high action 
ratio built for maximum amplification of key velocity, what is it 
that a heavy hammer has to offer in this situation.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"Can you check out this middle C?. It "whangs' - (or twangs?)
     Thanks so much, Ginger"
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