Apparent key weight

[Otto]

I was mulling over the playing weight of a Victorian piano, and remarked to someone in the trade about it, wondering if the balance weights had been replaced with smaller ones.

I was told that the more slack in the pin joints there are in an upright's action, the lighter the apparent weight gets.

With my engineering hat on, this sounds like an absolute load of garbage. No sane person would design a piano that relies on friction in the joints to provide a constant playing weight across all 85 / 88 keys.

Why might a seemingly bog-standard, if high class, Victorian piano have a very light touch?

[PianoGuy]

Why might a seemingly bog-standard, if high class, Victorian piano have a very light touch?

Without seeing the piano I have no idea, but the depth of touch on Victorian pianos is generally shallower. This can give the impression of a lighter touch weight.

[Barrie Heaton]

I was mulling over the playing weight of a Victorian piano, and remarked to someone in the trade about it, wondering if the balance weights had been replaced with smaller ones.

I was told that the more slack in the pin joints there are in an uprights action, the lighter the apparent weight gets.

Are we taking upright or grand. #touch weights were less manly because the hammers were much lighter friction was less on some pianos as there were no key bushings and the less friction the lighter it feels. Also, you have to take into account when looking at older pianos the hammer weight will be less due to refacing over the years so there will be less kinetic energy needed to move it then the action was designed for so it will feel lighter.

lead is added to the back of keys on uprights if you look at modern ones there is less lead then the Vicr ones

on grands it is done on a key by key to get the max up weight but keeping down weight down and is added to the front.

The key - whippen - hammer ratio plays a big part, as well as damper, butt and jack spring tension. In many over dampers they only had jacks springs and theses were low tension compared to today's jacks springs. dampers and butts were controlled by gravity which is constant, unless you have had a few drinks.

Barrie,

[Otto]

Sorry, I thought I made it clear it's an upright. It's overstrung and underdamped, and as far as I know it's still on its original pins, strings, action etc..

I don't know if that helps at all.

Incidentally, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on supplying a piano to the space station with its interesting gravity field ...

[Barrie Heaton]

Incidentally, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on supplying a piano to the space station with its interesting gravity field ...

Elastic bands on the shanks to keep them at rest I wonder how the strings would act in 0 gravity would the sustain be longer or shorter

Barrie,

[Tom Tuner]

I believe gravity is inconsequential as a restoring force in strings, but you might have trouble returning the keys to rest.

Tom Tuner