Piano Solutions XXI: Working with extreme and heavy piano action

[@timelwell7002]

Thanks for a very informative video. Only last week I had the problem of making the touch lighter on a Yamaha U1 upright. I achieved this by: 1) Increasing the key-dip from 10 mm to 11 mm, and 2) By adding lead key-weights to each key (excluding the upper treble where there are no dampers). I set the touch at 52 grams, which is a lot lighter than it was before. I did discuss the option of installing smaller hammers, but partly because of the cost, and partly because she didn't want to go to such an expense, we decided to stick with the above measures. My customer is now far happier when she plays Rachmaninoff preludes and Chopin Nocturnes - or anything else, for that matter.

[@tjplusproductions]

Sir, you are an amazing craftsman who is teaching me a lot! Thank you! Tom

[@Tomáš_Nithrania]

Thank you for this video. Its very helpfull demonstration. I would love to learn more about the process of fixing key weight. Im piano trained technician from central/eastern europe, studied at Petrof Factory, but there is so much more to learn about our job. Ive been doing my job for over 10 years, but i always feel like i dont know and understand enough!

[@SergejBortkiewicz]

I‘ve seen many of your videos and I am an admirer of your work, really! One thing : You can change the knuckle position without changing the capstan position. Then you just have to install the whole action more forward or backward. Of course you need shorter or longer hammer shanks then, according to the action position change. One can also change the capstan position without changing the knuckle position. Then the has to be moved forward resp. backward, too. The length of the hammer shanks also has a big influence to the touchweight. Especially with heavy hammer heads. Thanks again for your fantastic videos!

[@matthiasmatzer]

Thank you for explaining inertia so well by showing your key at the beginning. Wonderfully explained, thank you so much!

[@PIANOSXXI]

Glad it was helpful!

[@AndrijaMamutovic]

Will putting hammers closer to strings make subjective feeling that keys are sligthly easier? I am wondering if there is a shorter way to string, could pianist play fast passages with less power to produce sound? Sorry on bad english

[@malaysiapianotuningandrepa4290]

This information is gold Thank you sir!

[@robertvasi]

I see you chose renner action in this case. Was there anything you didn’t like about WNG ?

[@Etrehumain123]

Thank you very much for this demonstration

[@musicaldiscovery1434]

Your device, while clever, is only demonstrating changes in the static downward force on the capstan. That has nothing to do with inertia. Inertia is created as the mass at the back of the key begins to move. The faster the mass is moving, the more inertia is created to work against the player. Moving the capstan in any direction will not change this. You must remove mass from the back of the key, and then you can effectively remove some of the front lead counterweights as well. This reduces the inertia significantly, and makes the piano much more controllable and pleasurable to play. I have a system I created to calculate and perform this process and have implemented it successfully on many instruments that were otherwise unplayable, with great success.

[@rogershaffer1]

Thank you for this. Almost all technicians have no idea about inertia. All they know is static down weight.

[@paulknight6508]

Hi, love your work, moving capstan back changes key ratio. So they have increased distance from balance pin to capstan, this moves away from 2:1 key ratio. The action ratio/ geometry is all mostly same modern actions. By moving what they did requires more lead to acheive required downweight, then affects upweight badly. Result piano wont play properly

[@Johannes_Brahms65]

The speed of the hammer decreases this way too so the dynamics change!