STRING COVER+FIRMER TOUCH

[Fenton Murray]

William, pleasure to talk with you,
Approximate numbers here only, so much depends on the piano and budget,
condition, etc. First friction must be analyzed, this can be a 2 minute
operation or can involve complete charting of the action, obviously on a
cheap piano where we want bang for the buck the two minute analysis will
rule. So, assuming we are still on our cheap piano, I just feel around, find
some average notes and determine UW, DW, BW and friction. If friction is
above 15 or so you have to fix that, if that's ok  typical might be DW 37 UW
12 thus BW is 24.5 and friction at 12.5, I think, I hate doing this off the
top of my head. This action will not feel very good. Have a sample wt in
your kit like the ones you install at home. Slide it around first and last
natural and first and last sharp in each section on the back of the key
until you have a BW of around 37.5, make a chalk mark, draw a line
connecting the dots, and go home and drill and fill. I think it's about the
same for uprights as grands, but I really don't know. I'm just applying some
of what I do on grands to uprights and finding a huge improvement. I am
trying higher balance wts lately and like it, maybe 40. I know if friction
is high you need a higher balance wt. I don't run around looking for
consoletes to do this to, but I will spend less time doing this once and
having it right, than dealing with repetition problems every time I see the
piano.
Pleasure talking with you,
Fenton
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William R. Monroe" <pianotech at a440piano.net>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 6:27 AM
Subject: Re: STRING COVER+FIRMER TOUCH


> Hi Fenton,
>
> Comments below:
>
> > I've found that most all inexpensive small verticals need
> > re-weighting/balancing of the keys. Upgrading to a better piano or not,
>
> > once you have the procedure down, it is a couple hours work with
>minimal
> > part cost, and major improvement in touch.
>
> I agree with this, but would still suggest that one really should look at
> the capabilities of the instrument as a whole before reweighting.  I think
> there are enough folks out there with poor instruments that just need some
> encouragement to upgrade to a decent instrument.  A Kimball consolette is
> still a Kimball consolette, regardless of UW/DW.
>
> > Many of these pianos have
> > upweight of 12 to 15 grams, they just don't play well, the least bit of
> > friction and notes fail.
>
> In an ideal world, on an upright piano, what would you like to have for
UW,
> DW (BW), or, more specifically, would these numbers be any different than
> what you would like to have in a grand?
>
> Best,
> William R. Monroe
>
>
>
>