I read in one of these posts that someone was under the impression that "drop effects nothing". I would suggest this is rather misunderstood. Drop is a necessary component to after-touch for one thing. And if it wasn't there the hammer would end up going past let-off height when the key is depressed fully. You can easily enough accomplish this yourself by simply removing the let-off screw. With a close enough let-off and enough extra key movement after that point you end up quickly with the hammers on the strings after escapement. The whippen has to hold the hammer firmly up... enough to avoid checking on a soft blow, enough to lift the hammer firmly upon release of the key.. or if you like push the hammer and the key in opposite directions in strong enough fashion to facilitate repetition. So it has to have a stop mechanism to avoid pushing the hammers into the strings after let-off. The drop screw does this but creates a touch component of its own in the doing. Common practice has it that the drop screw and the let-off button engage simultaneously (or very very nearly so) because this evidently feels best to most pianists... that firm <bump> through let-off at the bottom of key motion. If both are regulated to engage simultaneously... and there is not too much after-touch key motion... then what Ed mentions is the result. The hammer will end up virtually at let-off height when the key is very firmly depressed at the bottom of key dip. I routinely run into regulation where some tech has regulated with way too much drop... this just slows every thing down and yields a rather squishy feeling to after-touch as the rep-lever has to engage far to early relative to the jack. Drop effects quite a bit actually. Paul is on to it here. Cheers RicB If no-one else has said this, and I haven't seen it yet, my understanding of the purpose of drop, other than the secondary result of having a visible let-off, is to "upstop" the repetition lever at the highest possible moment of rotation of the whippen and just before the sprung leverage rotates in the opposite direction so that the jack is allowed to return more efficiently under the knuckle. The more drop, a greater compression of the spring, a larger "bounce" of the knuckle on the rep lever, the less efficient return of the jack, and the slower the repetition. Paul
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC