Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Heavy touchweight on Yamaha upright?

TLDR: I have an upright Yamaha M500, which was purchased new in 2006. The touchweight on my keys ranges from anywhere between 55-65 grams. MOST keys are around 60-65 grams. Isn't this too heavy?

I'm a novice to working on pianos—though I did remove the keys and clean/polish the keypins. There was a very slight improvement (maybe a few grams), but everything feels WAY too heavy to really enjoy.
Everything appears to be in great shape on the piano, so I don't know what too look for/adjust next?

I asked our tuner/technician if there was anything he'd recommend but he simply said that the touchweight is pretty much set from the factory.

It will get lighter as you play it in, and you will get stronger.

Confirmed by me ✔️👍

Damper springs might be too tight.

Has it been this way since you purchased it in 2006?

In any case you might find it helpful to get a manual such as Reblitz or "Piano Manual: Buying, Problem-solving, Care, Repair and Tuning" or even the Kawai Upright manual (download). There are also lots of videos on YouTube.

How did you measure the touch weight?

Caesar,
It’s a little unclear from your post— did you buy the piano new in 2006, or only recently? Here are a few ideas:

-You’ve lubed the key pins; are all the keys properly eased?
-Some other place to lube include the capstan/wippen and jack/hammer butt interfaces (Teflon powder), the spoon/damper lever interfaces, and the damper lever/damper rod area. You have to take the action out to do the dampers.

Yes, you can try adjusting spring tension on the dampers, but it’s not easy to get right or consistent, especially if you try to do it in the piano. Damping effectiveness might decrease as you weaken the springs. Personally, I’ve never tried to modify damper springs, but I imagine fiddling with one in the piano if possible, then removing the action and all damper levers and making them all the same. There are also hammer return springs but weaken those and you might get some bobbling. If you can’t adjust a damper spring in the piano, you’d have to remove and replace the action several times as you experiment. Possible, but a pain…

I can’t remember the size of this model, but compared to the U1/U3 it’s relatively small, probably with shorter keys. That generally translates to a less refined touch.
If lubing and easing doesn’t help, it might be time to look at something bigger. Vertical pianos have performance limits; smaller pianos have more limits.

Thank you all for the replies,
Scott, My family bought the piano new in 2006. We moved houses a couple times, so the piano was hauled with us by truck.
I've only started playing it seriously again in 2020 (I hadn't played in years, and I was 10 when my family bought it), so I can't say whether I ever noticed—or "knew any better"—as to how it performed when new.
I hadn't tried easing the key bushings, I had assumed that I needn't touch the bushings if they looked fine Would you recommend that be my next step? I'll see if I can get my hands on an [affordable] set of key easing pliers.

@Withindale, I used coins to measure the weight (specifically, U.S. nickels, weighing 5 grams each), and did so with the sustain pedal fully pressed.

That's a good start. I'd adopt BDB's advice while you work out what to do. Probably better to work on one or two notes first. Then repeat the formula on the rest.