Last week’s WFTD, Progressive Hammer Action, triggered the following question: “Why does the touch of an acoustic piano get lighter on the higher notes?”
Sweetwater Sales Engineer, Rob Bowers, enlightens us:
The actual hammers that strike the strings vary in mass. The bass strings have relatively large, and heavy, hammers. The top of the keyboard, for the highest notes, has smaller, and lighter, hammers. This variation in weight is felt at the keyboard. It takes more effort to accelerate the heavier hammer on the left end of the keyboard than the lighter hammers on the other end. Just as it is true for the audio spectrum in loudspeaker systems, it takes more energy to “excite” the bass end of the piano than the treble. The increased mass of the hammer delivers more energy to the strings. Whether it really affects the playing, or is even noticed by the majority of players, is another matter, but there are certainly some players who notice a difference when it’s NOT there.