Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Downweight questions

1. Do most pianos manufactured today have graduated downweight(a range of downweight with the bass being heavier) or uniform downweight over the entire keyboard? Is either approach considered "better" or more favored by professional pianists?

2. What are typical downweights for some of the better makes? (I think I read that Fazioli has a 52-48 range)

3. Almost all the top companies say their keys are individually weighted. But I think Larry Fine said that since(at least for some makes) the individual weighting is done before regulation, it is therefore not always successful or accurate. Why would a company do the individual weighting before regulation, if this approach would negate the attempt to individually weight the keys?

The hammers in the bass weigh more than the treble hammers, thus the downweight would be naturally heavier in the bass. Adding key weights and whippen flange springs can help even this out. I prefer a slight graduation, but not much.

Weighting keys before regulation is a time saving (money saving) proceedure. The action stack may not even be available when this is done. The keys can be "individually weighted" on a model key frame to some spec somebody determined is correct. The term "Individually weighted keys" is a selling point.

The best pianos go though several regulations before shipping. This isn't possible with most production pianos due to costs.