Music – Instruments – General features
Patent
1999-01-27
2000-08-01
Witkowski, Stanley J.
Music
Instruments
General features
84438, 84432, G10C 312
Patent
active
060969598
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND
The invention relates to a system for balancing upright piano key mechanisms, which is adapted to make said mechanisms more closely resemble those of grand pianos as to respondence.
It is known that at present there is a great difference of performance between grand or horizontal pianos and upright pianos, particularly for an accomplished and demanding pianist.
This difference is due to the fact that in grand pianos the key is balanced with respect to the balance rail pin by the weight of the wippen and its related hammer on one part and by the weight of the balancing leads on the other part, whereby the pianist operates the keys solely with the force of his fingers, creating a respondence between keys and strings which cannot be found in upright pianos.
Upright pianos, even those with the most advanced mechanisms, such as the Renner ones or the like, do not allow said respondence, because the wippen acting on the key weighs very light on it, whereby the best solution adopted so far in order to enable the pianist to play has been to place a downweight, consisting of a lead counterweight, on a portion of the key close to the wippen. In this way the key has no balance of forces and, as a result of this, the pianist must overcome this counterweight with the touch of his fingers in order to act on the strings through the piano key actions.
In other words, there is no direct respondence between the touch of the pianist and the striking, whereby an accomplished and demanding pianist will hardly find satisfaction in playing an upright piano.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Object of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings discussed above, by providing a balancing system for keys and key mechanisms of upright pianos, which equilibrates the balancing static forces, thus allowing a more direct respondence of the key mechanisms to the pianist's touch on the key.
The system object of the invention consists in weighting the key in its front portion, opposite to the portion where the key downweight is usually placed, and consequently in weighting, by means of a weight simulating the weight of the hammer, also the portion where the hammer rests, the hammer in turn resting, through the wippen, on the rear portion of the key, so as to create a balance between the front portion and the rear portion of the key.
As a result, the force exerted by the pianist's finger is employed entirely to operate the hammer, thus obtaining a respondence between touch on the key and striking of the string which is definitely more direct and prompt, like that of grand or horizontal pianos.
The system according to the invention is described in detail herein by referring in particular to the attached drawings, to be taken as a non-limiting example, wherein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a side view of a prior art key mechanism;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the forces balanced according to FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a key action with the key mechanisms modified in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the forces balanced according to FIG. 3.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, schematically illustrating a key and key mechanism according to the prior art, the key 1 acting on the key mechanism 3 has a downweight in 5 on the portion opposite to the one played by the pianist.
In the above solution the hammer 7 does not weigh directly on the wippen 9 and consequently on the key 1.
This feature results in the key 1 having difficulty in returning to its resting position, because the mechanism 3 does not provide much counterweight.
To overcome this shortcoming, piano manufacturers have so far placed the counterweight 5 on the key itself, by mounting a keylead 5 on that portion of the key 1 where the key mechanism 3 weighs.
In this way action is obtained by means of a key 1 weighted for its return stroke and a light key mechanism 3, where the pianist cannot feel the hammer 7 contacting the wippen 9 on return.
The sh
REFERENCES:
patent: 1510663 (1924-10-01), Finnimore
patent: 2031748 (1936-02-01), Victor
patent: 5585582 (1996-12-01), Stanwood
patent: 5796024 (1998-08-01), Stanwood
Cerrato Pianoforti Di Cerrato Davide
Hsieh Shih-yung
Witkowski Stanley J.
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