set letoff to get acceptable aftertouch?

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Daniel.

I'd put  big question marks at the end of this post as well. Instead of 
trying to give you a bunch of standard things to do I'm just going to 
mention that if let-off is around 2 - 3 mm, key dip around 10 mm, then 
you will get appropriate jack release/clearance by regulating blow 
distance in or out . You can see this very clearly in an upright. Just 
press the key and look at the jack top. If on a 10 mm dip with 2-3 mm 
let-off the jack comes clear of the knuckle but not more then just 
clear... then whatever bobbling you have is the result of something else.

This something else could be a host of things and seems to me to be what 
folks should be listing up for you... i.e. causes of bobbling. I'll give 
you a few and let others fill in if they want. Bad back check felt, too 
strong return springs, too strong damper strings, too close jack stop 
rail, too much friction on the knuckle/jacktop interface... and just 
plain bad action design geometry.

As far as your heavy keys.... Points in the direction of some rather 
obvious to find fault. What have you done to diagnose that situation ? 
You describe something in the nature of 50 pounds to actuate these keys, 
which perhaps is not quite as heavy as they really are... but still 
something is clearly jamming/interfering these.  They are all together 
yes ?  Not just one hear and one there ? Look for something in the 
action or crammed in behind it.

Just did a rare cruise boat job the other day.  Two Steinway B's rather 
new.  Boat had just left South Hampton and arrived in Bergen on 
Saturday. Jammed key on the instrument they used for classical concerts 
and it happened 5 minutes into the first concert.  Hammer was nearly at 
drop position and key wouldnt return. There was half a broken high 
treble string laying in the V of the plate between the treble and bass 
sections... I think you see where this is going.... :)  Highly 
professional work by the fellow who changed that string. Fixed of course 
in 30 seconds...  producer watching and aghast at the fact that 4 days 
of concerts had had to be canceled because of this.

Dig carefully around in your action... you'll find whats hanging up 
those lower notes.

Cheers
RicB


    hi all

    would any of you ever set letoff far away enough from the strings to
    get acceptable aftertouch, if nothing else seems to be working? it's
    a crappy piano, a bradbury console. i'm need to get an acceptable
    regulation, but nothing more.

    i've tried playing with strike distance and dip and can't seem to
    get good enough aftertough in a small section of the bass (perhaps
    two and a half octaves) to avoid bobbling. also the dip is about 12
    mm. is it a sin to go deeper to get acceptable aftertouch? i don't
    remember hearing anyone mentioning keydip that deep.

    oh, and another thing. some of the sharps and naturals in lower half
    of the bass section feel heavy.  the only thing i can compare it to
    in my imagination is
    having a 3 inch sharp key, with the balance pin being 1 inch away
    from the player end of the key, and having a 10 pound weight sitting
    on the other end of the key.
    now can you imagine how that would feel? and it seems like the
    higher i have tried setting the key height to get a little more dip,
    the heavier it feels.

    ?!?!

    daniel carlton